Kochi shippers concerned over frequent strike calls

The frequent hartal or strike calls made by political parties and trade unions on various issues has become a cause of concern for the shipping fraternity in the Kochi port, as they say that this has resulted in total stoppage of cargo movement.

Strikes

Their reaction comes in the wake of the all-India strike by workers in the unorganized sector called by the CITU on Wednesday that had hampered the movement of cargo to and from the port on account of stoppage of container trailer/truck operations. Sources said that this is the second strike in last one week after the one being called by the Congress Party last Saturday.

Wrong signals

At a time when Kochi is aggressively marketing for cargo arrivals from hinterland centres, these sorts of work stoppages would send wrong signals to the business community outside. The direct fall out of frequent work disruption caused by strikes has been the diversion of significant volume of cargo to other ports, they added.

Urging the political parties and trade unions to exempt the port sector from the purview of hartals or strikes, the shipping fraternity said that uninterrupted functioning of the port is essential for export/import trade.

Stoppage of work

The work stoppages, they said, will also affect the sailing of vessels from the port, resulting in delay in the delivery of cargo to overseas consignees. According to sources, the operations in Kochi port are likely to be affected again for another two or three days during August alone on account of the ensuing the Independence Day celebrations and Onam holidays.

A senior official at the DP World, which operates the container terminal, termed such strikes as absolutely disastrous. “We are committing a kind of economic suicide by organizing such strikes”, he said.

Everyday there are about 400 containers are coming to the port and 400 containers are going out. The stoppage of such cargo is disastrous not only to the local trade but also to the trade from regional centres. This would definitely result in migration of business to other places, he added.