Pakistan union 
 busting: Solidarity 
 with MI Industries 
 workers 

Worker power and trade union organising is the route to change in the garment sector. Yet when workers try to unionise, so often employers find ways to dismiss, persecute and harass workers who push back. No more clear case is available than a new union busting struggle we have started to support – the fearless workers from the M.I. Industries factory in Pakistan.

In February this year, workers held a work stoppage to demand they be paid a new minimum wage that had come into force more than 6 months previously. While management paid the increased wages from March, this saw the start of a brutal anti-union campaign against the organised workers.

One of their first tactics was the fraudulent creation of an employer-controlled “yellow union” led by factory management. Then came the harassment. On June 5th, all workers were given their EID bonuses and pay and allowed to leave the factory. But for the 50 workers involved with the union, management withheld their pay packets. Anxious mothers with children waiting at home milled around outside the office for hours. Shazia Kanwal, the independent union vice president, asked when they would be paid and received the response: “Get out of here, you illiterate woman! You cannot do your union business and demand your salary like this. We will pay you when we finish our work.” The manager then proceeded to slam the window between the office and the area the workers were waiting directly on Shazia’s head. At 10.30pm they received their wages, but not before factory management required them to sign two documents which they couldn’t read and the meaning of which were not explained.

The harassment intensified as the factory management began suspending and firing union members. From June to August 2025, at least 10 workers, including key union leaders were illegally suspended, terminated, or harassed due to their union activities. Workers were dismissed for a variety of spurious and unfair charges, including lateness caused by the factory blocking their access, taking ‘unauthorised’ leave which was required to attend court hearings, and false charges of sexual harassment. Some workers were pulled into the office to be blackmailed and given threats of legal action if they did not denounce the union and cooperate with management.

Union leaders from the National Trade Union Federation and Homebased Women Workers’ Federation, Nasir Mansoor and Zehra Khan, have been sent legal threats by the factory for deformation and are at risk.

So far, this campaign of persecution is winning. The main union leaders at the factory have been dismissed and the labour courts have not been able to push for their reinstatement. This cannot be allowed to stand. 

Together we are drawing a line in the sand. If we let these cases slip by in silence, without speaking up, the industry will only continue to adopt tactics that stop true organising and limit any opportunity for worker power and change.