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محتوى الصفحة: Home > مجلة النقل الدولي "Transport International" > Issue 36 - July 2009 > Working life
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Hassan Abdul Hameid, 36, secretary of the Bahrain Airport Services (BAS) Trade Union, works as a catering supervisor in BAS, which employes 2,000 people responsible for traffic, cargo, engineering, catering and ground handling services at Bahrain airport. He is a father of three children and a husband to two wives.
A typical day for Hassan starts at 6am when he takes his kids to school on way to work. “Until 9am I check the food trays for the upcoming flights,” he says. The half-hour tea break then takes him to the staff canteen where the trade unionist in him comes alive. “Most times, it’s about personal grievances – sick leave, behaviour of the supervisor, interpretation of company rules etc. Of the 1,700 union category workers [staff members who are eligible to join the union], we have 1,115 union members,” says Hassan, “and so, even if my cup of tea gets cold every day because I am always listening and talking, I enjoy it.”
Hassan got active in union work when in 2006, along with his colleagues, he collected more than 1,000 employee signatures demanding a 50 per cent wage rise – as against the 3 per cent offer made by the company. “We threatened to go on strike. We met the management and ministry. The strategy worked,” says Hassan. The company appointed a consultant and an agreement for a 10 per cent wage increment backdated 14 months was signed. “We were the first ones to achieve a backdated wage agreement in Bahrain,” says Hassan. There has been no looking back since then.
A lunch break at 12.30pm provides another chance for Hassan to meet up with members and take on their issues for discussion. “It takes up a lot of time to tell workers that I am not the union but that only all of us together can make it work. Motivation building is a long, slow process,” he says.
Hassan bemoans the fact there are six other unions in Bahrain representing the airport and airline industry workers from different categories. “But we rarely sit and talk to each other. So much for the motivation levels among unionists. Why blame the workers?”
By 3.30pm its time to go home, but not before Hassan spends at least half an hour talking to workers in the car park. He is also active in the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU), the umbrella body of unions founded in 2004. “I am a member of the Information and Education Committee here and make it a point to visit the federation office at least once a week after work,” says Hassan.
He also contributes a full page on labour and union issues to the weekly journal “Al Bilad”.
Hassan’s family is also involved in union work. His elder daughter sometimes helps out by typing union minutes and often asks questions about the how and why of trade unionism. But Hassan does take some time off from union issues: “Saturdays are totally devoted to the family,” he says.
Looking ahead, Hassan says there is so much to learn, appreciating his participation at the ITF education seminar: “If we could even take a fraction of this knowledge to our workers, they would feel empowered about their rights.” Hassan also hopes the GFBTU and the government will sign a good collective agreement benefitting the workers and that the GFBTU is able to pursue more improvements in the labour law and Bahrain signing up to ILO Conventions 87 and 98.
The 2005, the ICFTU (now ITUC) Annual Trade Union Rights Survey highlighted Bahrain as a “bright spot in an otherwise dismal landscape of persistent labour rights violations in the Middle East”. The country’s king signed a law in 2006 banning the sacking of employees engaged in trade union activities, following ICFTU criticism of the sacking of Gulf Air’s trade union head shortly after his election. Despite this, improvements could still be made – Hassan will keep working to help union members until they happen.
الصفحة الرئيسية للأقسام:
Issue 36 - July 2009
صفحات أخرى لـ Issue 36 - July 2009:
In this issue | Capitalism in crisis | Opinion: Islam and democracy are compatible | Piracy on the rise | Road to success | Hard times | Against the odds | Transatlantic winning formula | Kenya dockers win HIV policy | Strengthening democracy | Saved for the nation | Signs of progress
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