The two-day nationwide strike has resulted in a revenue loss of Rs 100 crore to major ports in the country, according to port unions.
Loading and unloading operations were affected at many ports including the two major ports in the city — Mumbai port and Jawaharlal Nehru port — on the second day of the strike on Thursday.
“The strike has hit the revenue earnings to the tune of Rs 50 crore at both the ports and about Rs 100 crore across major ports in the country,” Transport & Dock Worker’s Union, Mumbai, said in a release.
The port workers union demanded that the Government speed up the ongoing wage negotiations for the port and dock workers.
The wage negotiation demand for the working class is in the series of different wage negotiations demand by different stakeholders in the public and private sector over the past several months.
The port workers have joined the strike called by various Central trade unions to protest the “anti-people” policies of the Government.
The port workers union also demanded that the Government fill up vacancies, allow autonomous functioning of major ports and also stop hiring contract labour for perennial nature of work.
The port union had said in December that it would go on a strike in February. It subsequently served a notice of the strike to Shipping Ministry on February 4 (at least 14 days before the strike), as is the normal practice, R. M. Murthy, spokesperson of the union said.
Subsequently, the assistant labour commissioner of the Mumbai division called a meeting of the union but that did not yield any result, Murthy said. He informed that about 17,000 workers at the Mumbai port and 1,500 workers at the Jawaharlal Nehru port stayed away from work.
At the Mumbai port, export of automobile, pulses and general cargo was affected .
New Mangalore port
The two-day all-India strike called by trade unions affected the general cargo operations at the New Mangalore Port on Thursday also.
However, vessels handling oil and coal cargo continued with operations. Handling of cargo is mechanised at the New Mangalore Port.
Speaking to Business Line , P. Tamilvanan, Chairman of New Mangalore Port Trust, said of the seven vessels at the port, five were working on Wednesday. Of them, one vessel completed operations and four are working.
He said two vessels handling general cargo did not operate, as the workers did not attend work . The port administration had made an appeal to them to work, he said. Stating that the situation is under control, he said there was 100 per cent presence from Class I and Class II employees at the port. Only a few Class III employees worked on Thursday. The Class IV employees abstained from work, he said.
Kochi port
The Water Transport Workers Federation of India has said that the trade union strike at major ports was total.
T. Narendra Rao, General Secretary of the federation, said in a statement that the strike was 100 per cent successful in major ports.
All major federations of port and dock employees had unanimously supported the strike, and demanded to stop privatisation and outsourcing by awarding new projects under the BOT/PPP model, he said.