Indian Port workers preparing for indefinite strike
NEW DELHI : An indefinite Port Strike in India appears increasingly likely, as tensions escalate. Dockworkers hosted protests at several of the country’s ports Thursday due to the lack of progress on several anticipated settlements from a new five-year contract tentatively reached in late August.
A mass demonstration at the ports’ administrative buildings is scheduled to take place on Dec. 10. Retired port employees who would collect pension benefits are expected to join those protests. In late November, six federated dockworkers unions determined that they would go on strike on Dec. 17 due to the delays, impacting 12 of the country’s state-owned ports.
The labor federations first deferred a planned strike in August after the unions reached a settlement with the Indian Ports Association (IPA) and the country’s Bipartite Wage Negotiation Committee. While that contract tacked on an 8.5 percent wage increase over five years, backdated to Jan. 1, 2022, the approval of the wage revisions has been delayed, thus leading the unions to resurrect the strike threat.
If the Indian government fails to enforce the IPA to implement initially agreed upon conditions including wage revisions and a productivity-based reward plan by Dec. 15, the dockworkers say they will walk off the job two days later. A work stoppage would involve roughly 18,000 workers, and cost Indian exporters nearly $15 million daily, according to The Hindu Business Line.
The reward plan had government approval in October, but the unions said that some of the ports’ former employees did not receive the retroactive pay they were owed.
Ocean carrier giant Hapag-Lloyd said Wednesday its teams are working to assess any impact on operations as the situation unfolds. The container shipping giant is “in close communication with all relevant parties” to notify shippers of how to handle cargo planning and minimize impacts from the strike.
Apparel and textiles businesses will be waiting over the next 10 days with bated breath if a strike takes place. After all, India is the fifth-largest apparel exporter in the world, after China, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Turkey, according to data from the World Trade Organization (WTO).
India’s textiles and apparel exports increased by 3.8 percent to $14.7 billion between April and August 2024, according to India’s Ministry of Commerce and Trade.