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Manohar Bellani, a KPT trustee and member of the national wage revision committee, told Newsline on Friday: “We have started group meetings with our workers to get ready for the D-day, which now appears to be unavoidable in view of the casual approach of the Shipping Minister. He again wanted us to hold talks with the Union Shipping Secretary, which we did in the past without any result.”
He added: “Our main demand is the implementation of the interim decisions taken by the government-appointed Bipartite Wage Revision Committee headed by a government representative.”
Calling it a matter of principle, Bellani said: “When the major ports are self-earning autonomous bodies not dependent on government funds, why should there be any interference from the government?”
After the talks with the Shipping Minister failed on Thursday, the Chief Labour Commissioner of India (CLC) held a three-hour marathon meeting with the five federations in the evening. But again, no solution was found. The CLC has fixed another round of talks on July 15.
Meanwhile, the CLC, an independent authority, will hold talks with the government to find out a formula acceptable to all.
On the strike, Bellani said it will badly affect the international trade, with 90 per cent of the country's international trade being sea-borne.
“Kandla has the country's largest hinterland spread over 10 lakh sq km up to Jammu and Kashmir. It daily handles over 1.5 lakh tonnes of export-import cargo. Kandla is the major handler of fertiliser imports. Without workers to handle the commodity, farmers in North India will suffer,” he said.
Bellani, however, shrugged off the responsibility of port workers in this. “We too do not want the strike. But when the government is not implementing its own decision, we are left with no other alternative.”
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