The National Convention of Indian Major Port workers which was held in Cochin last week, marks a huge step forward for dockers unions in the country’s ports.
P.M. Mohammed Haneef, General Secretary, All India Port & Dock Workers Federation explained: “The idea behind this convention is to analyse the problems that are being confronted in major ports in the country at the moment, and to work out evolving strategies together for saving those ports and at the same time maintaining or winning decent conditions for workers.
He continued: “There were about 600 workers here in Cochin from 12 ports and having their input was crucial to making this a valuable and productive event. There are lots of things threatening major ports, not least more competition, cargo being shifted to GNTs and other ports under state governments and government policy allowing discounts and rebates to ship owners in the non-major ports. And what those things mean are fewer workers most on poor and unprotected working conditions on contracted and sub contracted employment. The numbers in government controlled major is already down from 160,000 to 42,000 with a massive increase in contract workers. We need a collective approach to fighting back against these erosive actions.”
The convention is also in line with the principles behind the GNT council of ITF affiliates that was established earlier this year to represent workers in global network terminal operated ports around the world.
Find out more about the ITF GNT campaign.
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