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Feb, 2004 the Mining POSITVE training was held in Northern Punjab Mining Area. POSITIVE for mine workers provided by Pakistani trade union has made great advances lately. Remarkable points of the activity are 1) focusing most hazardous industry and 2) independent activity by workers and their trade union.
APFOL; All Pakistan Federation OF Labour (http://www.apfol.org.pk/) is a national center of trade unions in Pakistan. Cooperating with JILAF; Japan International Labour Federation, APFOL has taken efforts on occupational safety and health applying a participatory methods. The activity is named POSITVE; Participatory Oriented Safety Improvements by Trade union Initiative. It has been 9 years since APFOL introduced POSITIVE. In 2000 APFOL started the original activity that applied POSITIVE into mining industry. 3 years later, the POSITVE for mine workers has brought great results.

I was sent as a trainer to Pakistan Feb, 2003 and Feb,2004 and visited the Northern Punjab Mine Area. In 2003 I participated the initial POSITIVE training course in a middle scale coal mine that employs 60 workers. The checklist exercise was done in the coal mine. I could see an actual mine workplace and understood terrible working condition of coal mine. Despite absence of comfortable seminar venue, electricity and other resources at the seminar place, the training course was really successful. The mine workers were trying to overcome the difficulties positively. In the end of the training participants proposed 17 improvements to the manager.

One year later I visited the same coal mine again. It was very favorable opportunity to comparing “before the training” and “after the training”. Fig.1 shows the result. The workers and the managers implemented 11 improvements of 17 proposals, 2 were done partly, 1 had been planed. These improvements were typical and simple, but they started the action for improving their workplace by themselves.

I participated the POSITIVE follow-up seminar held in Khewra salt mine Feb 25-27, 2004. Khewra salt mine is a big and famous salt mine providing rock salt, soda ash and lime stone. The seminar was just one of ordinary training course that the APFOL held, but it was absolutely successful. The POSITIVE trainers always encouraged the participants to present their comments and questions. The participants showed many games, songs, poems and jokes. They wrote all of group discussion results on papers and displayed on the walls. They invited the manager closing ceremony and the trainer explained the results to the manager. The paper of the results covering all of the walls impressed the manager, he understood how earnest the workers were during the training and how eager they are to improve workplaces.

I saw and understood. Now Pakistani mine workers trying to improve their workplaces, despite a lot of difficulties. They started the action and their achievements have been existed rapidly. And I know the POSITIVE for mine workers has unlimited potential to save mine workers of all around the world.