The five major federations of port and dock workers have unanimously decided to launch a series of agitations against the corporatisation of major ports in the country.

Federations such as Water Transport Workers, All India Port & Dock Workers, All India Port & Dock Workers' Federation (workers); Port, Dock & Waterfront Workers' Federation, and Indian National Port & Dock Workers' Federation, which met in Mumbai, decided to observe a national protest on March 23. Their demand is to stop corporatisation of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Mumbai (JNPT) immediately and save major ports.

Mr T.Narendra Rao, General Secretary of the Water Transport Workers Federation of India, said that the federations also decided to go for a one day strike on April 5, against the proposal of the Government to corporatise the JNPT and what he called the negative attitude of the Shipping Ministry towards various long-pending issues of port and dock workers.

Indefinite strike

If the Government is not willing for an amicable settlement with the major federations, it was decided to serve on March 30 and go for an indefinite strike from April 15 till the issues are resolved, he said.

He pointed out that the recent statement of the Shipping Secretary after a meeting is a clear indication that the Ministry is going ahead with its plan to corporatise JNPT initially and would be followed in other ports.

Besides, the federations also protested against what they called the negative attitude of the Ministry towards the agreed points of various statutory settlements such as implementation of categorisation and classification of committee's recommendation, RK Jain Committee's recommendation on realistic assessment of required manpower at the major ports, evolving new productivity linked reward scheme for port workers, negating the rights of bilateral discussions for new wage settlement to be given effect from January 1, 2012, he added.

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