Port workers’ national meet in city

The five federations of port and dock workers in the country will meet here on Monday for their first national convention to draw up a programme of action against privatisation of major ports in the country.

A Bill for corporatisation of major ports is expected to come up during the winter session of Parliament and the theme of the Kochi meet is “Save Our Major Ports”.

Trade Union leaders here said the Union Government had finalised plans for corporatisation and privatisation of major ports. The government had also prepared a priority list of ports for the programme, the said.

National leaders G. Sanjeeva Reddy of the INTUC; Gurudas Dasgupta of the AITUC; Tapan Sen of the CITU and Harbhajan Singh Sidhu of the HMS are among those scheduled to address the national convention to be attended by about 600 delegates representing All India Port and Dock Workers’ Federation; All India Port and Dock Workers’ Federation (Workers); Indian National Port and Dock Workers’ Federation (INTUC) and Water Transporter Workers’ Federation of India (CITU) and Port, Dock and Waterfront Workers’ Federation (AITUC).

‘An example’

Sources said the Union Government’s move on Cochin Shipyard was an example of the privatisation of public sector assets. The shipyard has been asked to raise money to invest in a dry dock meant for building LNG carriers.

The shipyard will have to find the source of money and sale of its shares was one of the ways of raising money though the institution had its own reserve funds.

Port finance

They also said that the Cochin Port’s financial condition continued to be bad and appeals for government help had not been heeded to so far.

The Port Trust as well as trade unions had made repeated representations to the government on the financial condition of the port. Among the demands raised by the unions of employees was a waiver of the penal interest on loans to the port and compensation for the Rs.400 crore spent by the Port Trust over the last three years on dredging for the International Container Transshipment Terminal.