Ports employees defer strike to March 16

Employee unions of state-run ports today said they have deferred their indefinite strike call to March 16 following deliberations with managements and assurances of a meeting with shipping ministry officials over their demands.
The unions had announced to go on indefinite strike from today to press for their demands, including halting efforts to corporatise major ports.
"We are having a series of meetings till March 15 to resolve our demands. If they do not get resolved, we will be forced to go on strike. Hence, we have deferred our strike call to March 16," Mohammed Haneef, general secretary of All India Ports and Docks Workers Federation, told PTI.

Haneef said the unions today met chairmen of ports in New Delhi. The chairmen will be briefing the shipping secretary on demands, following which the employee unions will be meeting the shipping secretary on either March 11 or 12.
Apart from that, the chief labour commissioner has also called a meeting with the employees unions for a conciliation on March 15, he said.
The federation, which is an umbrella body of employees unions at 12 major ports, had termed the budget proposal to corporatise major ports as an "enabling provision" for privatisation, alleging that private parties are interested in the commercial aspects in some ports, while the land banks held by the port trusts is also a big draw.

In the Budget presented last month, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government will encourage the 12 major ports run by the government to get corporatised.

There are 12 major ports - Kandla, Mumbai, JNPT (Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust), Marmugao, New Mangalore, Kochi, Chennai, Ennore, VO Chidambarnar (formerly Tuticorin Port), Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia), which handle around 61 per cent of the country's total cargo traffic.
The unions' other demands are related to settlement of wages and some issues regarding pensions, among others, Haneef said.
It can be noted that minor-ports, run by private operators on long term concessions, have overtaken the state-run ports in many aspects and the Adani-run Mundra Port emerged as the largest in the country on volumes.