Water transport workers’ strike hits loading, unloading at ports

The Water Transport Workers’ Federation of India has said the trade union strike at major ports was total, affecting loading and unloading operations.

T. Narendra Rao, General Secretary of the Federation, said in a statement that the strike was 100 per cent successful in major ports such as Mumbai, JNPT, Visakhapatnam, Paradip, Kochi and New Mangalore.

The handling of an average of 1.54 million tonnes of cargo each day had come to a standstill, thereby resulting in revenue loss to the tune of Rs 19.17 crore each day, he said.

The port and dock employees belonging to all major ports irrespective of their political affiliations supported the strike for various demands. This included a protest against the corporatisation of major ports, captive user berth policy, not filling up posts lying vacant since 2007, contracting jobs in the port sector and competition among the private and major ports.

All the major federations of port and dock employees had unanimously supported the strike and demanded an end to privatisation and outsourcing of various activities at the major ports by giving new projects under the BOT/PPP model, he said.

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