The workers of all the major ports of
the country will go on an indefinite
strike from March 9 against the government's decision to
corporatise the sector.
The national coordination committee of Port Workers
Federation today announced its decision to go on strike.
The strike has been called against the unilateral decision of
the Shipping Ministry to corporatise the country's major ports, a release by
Transport and Dock Workers' Union, Mumbai said.
The decision to this effect was taken during a Federation's
meeting held in Mumbai on January 28-29, 2015.
"The ministry has taken the decision disregarding
several assurances given to the Federation as well as the unanimous
recommendations contained in the Parliamentary Standing Committee's 117th
report, which was presented in the Rajya Sabha on 11 August, 2011," core
leader in Federation in Mumbai, S R Kulkarni said in a statement.
The leaders stated that the present attempt of the Ministry
is not only detrimental to the interest of the port, dock workers and
pensioners, but also against the sovereignty of the country at large.
They criticised the attitude of the Ministry for not taking
the workers into confidence while making radical changes in the organisational
structure and the consequences arising out of it.
Port authorities are blatantly violating statutes by not
implementing several statutory settlements relating to serving employees and pensioners signed between Port management
and the Federation before central authorities.
The union leaders alleged that the Ministry has even
initiated action to enforce decision on industrial relations policy in vogue,
in recalcitrance to Major
Ports agreement with the
Federation, even disregarding the Labour Ministry's guidelines and several Court judgements.
//COPY// (DNA(20-02-2015)