BL reported that manual handling of bulk cargo at Haldia dock has come to a halt again. The contractors workers again stopped work from Saturday evening following breakdown of their talks with their employers over revision of wages and other benefits. The daily cargo throughput at the dock, as a result, has dropped to around 55,000 tonne from the normal 90,000 tonne or so.

The Haldia dock authorities claim that the operation of mechanized berths such as oil jetties, mechanized ore berth and containers berth so far remains unaffected. The operation of the BOT berth, No 12, however, remained suspended from Tuesday. There are a total of 22 vessels inside the impounded dock, including 15 in berths and 10 of them are working. The number of waiting vessels outside the dock is 26.

It might be recalled that the workers, to press their demands, first struck work on June 1st and continued till June 3rd. The strike was withdrawn on assurance that issues in dispute would be settled by June 20th. But that did not happen. The workers again went on strike on June 21st and continued till June 24th. It was withdrawn again on assurance that the settlement would be reached by June 27th. But again no settlement could be reached on that day. Meanwhile, a meeting was called on last Monday at the Regional Labor Commissioners office in Kolkata but with no success. The leaders of the union spearheading the strike boycotted it.

According to KoPT sources, Mr Anindo Majumdar the acting chairman of Kolkata Port Trust is likely to meet Mr AM Chakraborty chief secretary West Bengal and discuss with him the situation at Haldia dock.

(Sourced from Business Line)