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Dock workers to continue stir

Syed Firdaus Ashraf

Dock workers intend to continue their indefinite national strike if the central government does not take immediate action to resolve their problems.

All union leaders of the eleven ports have returned from Delhi to continue the strike, asserting they will not bow to the government's demands. At present, no work is being conducted at any of the 11 major ports in India after nearly 100,000 workers struck work.

There 11 ports affected are Bombay, Kandla, Vizag, Cochin, Madras, Calcutta, Goa, Tuticorin, Paradip, JNPT (Nhava Sheva) and the New Mangalore.

One of the workers' major demands is that the wage revision settlement should be for five years and not 10 years as the government wants. They also say their working hours shouldn't be increased from six to eight hours since their jobs is strenuous and fraught with risk. What is bothering the unions is that the government is planning to reduce the workers' house rent allowance and city compensatory allowance.

Speaking to rediff.com, S K Shette, General Secretary of the All-India Port and Dock Workers Federation (unions led by Dr Shanti Patel) said, "Instead of the government requesting to hear our demands, they are telling us what we should do and what we shouldn't. And that is not acceptable to us."

There are five major port and dock workers union in India -- the All India Port and Dock Workers Federation headed by S R Kulkarni, the Indian National Port and Dock Workers Federation (affiliated to the Congress), the Water Transport Workmen Federation of India (affiliated to the Communist Party of India-Marxist), Port the Dock and Water Front Workers Federation of India and the All India Port and Dock Workers Federation (headed by Dr Shanti Patel).

Meanwhile as a precautionary measure the central government is taking help from the Indian Navy and the Home Guards to tackle contingency plans in many ports.

A Bombay Port Trust source said only three cargo vessels are at present docked in the port and that there is no work being done there.

It is after 11 years that the port and dock workers have struck work. That was in 1989, again over the issue of wage settlement. The strike then lasted 27 days.

"In 1994, the settlement between the unions and the government was passed in one day and even the Parliament applauded our stance. But this time the government is just not willing to budge," says Shette.

Meanwhile, Union Minister of Surface Transport Rajnath Singh has told the unions that he will take up their demands at the cabinet level and that their demands would be considered.

"He was sympathetic to our demands but the government has to be more realistic," says Shette.

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