NEWS DETAILS

A group of port workers has called for an indefinite strike starting August 28, demanding an immediate hike in wages and other benefits that have been pending for quite some time. If they proceed with the strike, the loading and unloading of containers will be severely impacted, exacerbating existing congestion at Asian and European ports.

According to reports, a couple of dockworkers unions have signed a letter warning the Government of India to settle the pending wages and benefit hikes, or they will continue the strike until their demands are met. The strike would delay shipments further, resulting in a greater impact on global trade and commerce.

Negotiating Committee
In March 2021, India’s Ministry of Shipping formed a bipartite wage negotiation committee which was asked to look at the issues of port workers. As per the government’s guidance, port workers submitted their demand six months later, ahead of the expiration of the previous agreement in December 2021. A letter signed by the port workers’ union stated that the negotiating committee met on seven occasions, without any concrete commitment on the port workers’ demand. This necessarily means that dockworkers' demand could not be resolved despite over three-and-a-half years passed by.

Reports said that a group of approximately 20,000 dockworkers agreed to call for a strike after a meeting this month in Thoothukudi, a port city in Tamil Nadu. They unanimously agreed to join the strike. A Union Member on condition of anonymity said that the immediate impact of this strike may not be severe, but its cascading effect would be felt long term if the strike goes on for long.

Overseas shippers exercise caution
Ocean Freight Forwarding company Yusen Logistics (India) Pvt Ltd, said in a note to customers, “Dockworkers at India’s 12 largest ports will begin an indefinite strike beginning August 28 which will disrupt cargo handling and have significant implications for both domestic and global supply chains. The strike arises from unresolved wage negotiations. Workers are demanding wage revisions, pension benefits, and protection of existing entitlements. With the previous wage agreement having concluded in December 2021 and after over 31 months of negotiations, there remains a sense of unresolved issues regarding the level of engagement from the government.”

The strike is expected to halt cargo handling at major ports, leading to severe delays and congestion, impacting the entire supply chain from manufacturers to end consumers. Prolonged disruption may result in higher operational costs, including demurrage, detention charges, and rerouting expenses. As a key global hub, India’s strike could affect imports and exports, impacting various industries, particularly during the peak festive season when demand typically surges. The strike may have a broader impact on global supply chains, particularly for markets dependent on Indian ports of raw materials, intermediate goods, or finished products.

Major demands
According to all India Port Workers’ Federation, which includes the national coordination committees of six major port workers’ unions and federations throughout India, “the last settlement on wages and benefits expired on December 31, 2021. We are calling for the agreements to be made with retrospective effect i.e. January 2022, when the next contract should have begun. The industrial relations at the ports were in a pathetic condition.”

According to the Federation, no new date for bilateral negotiation has been fixed. However, the government may intervene to encourage workers not to proceed with strike, a Federation official said. The strike assumes significance as the annual cargo handling capacity of major Indian ports such as Chennai, Cochin and Mumbai totalled 1.62 billion tonnes.

The largest merchant shipping fleet among developing nations is found in India, which is ranked fifteenth in terms of deadweight tonnes (dwt) and seventeenth in terms of gross registered tonnage (grt) in the world. Roughly 90 percent of the global trade in goods and commodities is said to be carried out by ships. Although the quantities have expanded significantly in the previous two decades, this percentage has stayed relatively consistent throughout the past century.


DILIP KUMAR JHA
Editor
dilip.jha@polymerupdate.com