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Our Bureau

Chennai , Jan 20

THE strike by workers at the privatised container terminal in the Chennai Port has been called off, according to reliable sources.

The workers' union gave an undertaking to this effect after a meeting convened by the Chennai Port Trust Chairman, Mr K. Suresh, with the management of Chennai Container Terminal Ltd, which runs the terminal, the union, and user associations on Thursday.

According to the sources, the port trust authorities did some tough talking with the union and the user associations too made it clear that they were unhappy with the terminal's functioning, especially the frequent strikes resorted to by the workers' union.

The users even went to the extent of saying that they considered the terminal was not "reliable" in their view because of the strikes by the workers, despite the union signing an agreement before the Regional Labour Commissioner in August 2004 that it would not resort to strikes, the sources said.

Following this, the workers agreed to withdraw the strike with immediate effect. However, the users' associations wanted the union to give an undertaking before the Port Trust authorities to this effect, the sources said.

About 300 workers at the terminal went on a strike from Tuesday evening over dispute on the quantum of compensation to be paid for a crane operator who died at his home, the sources said.

The workers had volunteered to give the family of the deceased one month's salary, which worked out to about Rs 30 lakh, and they wanted the management to pay a similar amount. The management had declined to pay this amount, the sources said.

They said about 3,300 import containers and 1,600 export containers are waiting to be moved inside the terminal. Five container ships are waiting at anchor and about 600 trailers loaded with containers are waiting outside the port.

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