The Trade Union Coordination Committee, a combine of 10 trade unions of drivers and workers engaged in the movement of container carriers at the International Container Transshipment Terminal here, has demanded that lorry drivers and crew be protected.
Their demand comes in the wake of the attack on a lorry driver and crew members on Saturday night in which two people were injured and have been hospitalised.
Leaders of the coordination committee decided on Sunday that they would meet the District Collector and the City Police Commissioner on Monday to press their demand for the protection of lorry drivers and workers, said convenor Charles George. He said the coordination committee, which had last week withdrawn from taking any responsibility for the deployment of lorries, would hold a protest rally and meeting on Bolghatty Island to protest against the attack.
Mr. George said there would be no permanent settlement on the issue of allotment of work unless lorry owners, who were now arrayed under four separate associations, came to an agreement among themselves.
A meeting of the leaders of the coordination committee on Sunday was chaired by its president P.S. Ashik.
Mr. George said the current bout of violence was a result of the move to abandon the turn system and introduce stiff competition among lorry owners.
The turn system uses rotation of container carriers with evenly distributed opportunity for work. It involves allotment of work by turn against pooling of the available vehicles and allocation of work on the basis of competitive rates.
Leaders of the Trade Union Coordination Committee, which initially took the lead in organising the turn system, said the system ensured fair distribution of work against a situation in which severe competition led to cutthroat rivalry and lowering of prices.
The 10 trade unions under the coordination committee include those affiliated to INTUC, CITU, BMS and AITUC.
