Strike paralyses Haldia dock for second day

Work at the Haldia Dock Complex, which is administered by the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT), remained paralysed for the second consecutive day on Thursday, due to a strike called by four workers’ unions. The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) and the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) are protesting against a change in the shift pattern of workers, which has been employed to tide over the present financial crisis at the port.

“We are implementing certain changes in the shift of workers, as the port was bearing a loss of more than Rs 80 crore per annum due to payments for overtime work. The management wants to reduce this expenditure. So, even though some workers are protesting, we will go ahead with our plans,” said M L Meena, KoPT chairman.

Operations at Haldia is carried out in three shifts — morning, evening and night. Earlier, workers had to partake in the morning and night shifts for two weeks, along with another week of working in the night shift. On Wednesday, the four unions started the strike against the management move to change this to one week of work in each shift.

“The earlier format had continued from 2000 onwards and now the management is trying to alter it. When they issued this order last month, we approached the regional labour commission and it had called both the parties for negotiations on December 13. Still, the management has gone ahead with their plans, so the four unions have decided to strike,” said Mukul Kumar Sen, a CITU leader of KoPT. He added that the workers were ready for talks, if management kept an open mind.

However, the stalemate seems to be affecting the port’s daily operations. “More than 35 per cent of the port operations are hit by the strike. Some of the vessels are even diverted to nearby ports like Paradip and Dhamra. It is going to affect the operations here for a long time. We are already running at a loss of Rs 11 crore per month, so it is high time to cut this overtime payment,” a port official said.