Haldia dock

Haldia, June 30: Operations at the Haldia Dock Complex ground to a halt today after a simmering wage row involving labourers hired by contractors snowballed into a day-long blockade.

Nearly 4,000 agitating labourers owing allegiance to CPM labour arm Citu and engaged by export-import firms obstructed the main road leading to the port. There was little hope the stalemate would end tomorrow as the blockade continued till late tonight and the labourers gave no hint when they would end their protest. The contractors and Citu leaders had held a meeting this morning but couldn’t reach an agreement.

No trucks entered or came out. Port officials said with the operations halted, around 37 ships were waiting inside and outside the port to pick up or unload cargo.

“The agitation has led to severe disruptions. We have informed the Centre as well as the Bengal government. Only mechanised loading and unloading of goods like petrol, containers and steel took place,” said Basab Roy Chowdhury, the port’s general manager.

The contractors told the Citu leaders today they were ready to hike the wages of daily contract labourers, paid Rs 150-200 on average, by 30 per cent. For the other category of such workers, paid Rs 3,000 on average every month, they offered a flat raise of Rs 1,500. The proposals were rejected by the union leaders, who demanded hikes of 150-200 per cent in both categories.

A contractor engaged by one export-import firm, A.M. Enterprise, said they were bound by agreements with companies under which their payments were fixed till March 2010. “Despite this we were ready to pay more,” said Amit Mukherjee, partner of the contractor firm.

Ashok Patnaik, district committee member of Citu in East Midnapore, of which Haldia is a part, said he was aware of the disruption but wanted to build pressure.

The protests began on June 21 but were limited to slogan-shouting and involved around 1,500 labourers.