Mumbai port workers threaten indefinite strike from Jan 4

Five federations of major ports in the country have threatened to go on an indefinite strike from Monday, if the talks with Indian Ports Association (IPA),
scheduled that day, fail to resolve contentious issues.

"We have decided to go ahead with the proposed indefinite strike from Monday if the meeting with IPA fails to find a solution to our demands," All India Port and Dock Workers Federation, president, SR Kulkarni said.

The strike, which would involve 6,000 port and dock workers across 12 major ports in the country, was called to press the workers' demand relating to wage revision.

The stir is also feared to result in a loss of Rs1,000 crore of revenue for the government per day, besides causing issues on the supply in the domestic market and inflation in commodity prices.

A meeting between Federations and the Indian Ports Association held on January 1 in the presence of Chief Labour Commissioner ended inconclusively.

Over the past three years, these federations have held nearly 24 rounds of discussions with the IPA, but failed to resolve the contentious issues, Kulkarni said.