One of the closed warehouses on Strand Road. (Amit Datta)

The Citu has laid siege to four warehouses in the heart of the city, dealing a blow to over 50 exporters and importers, already reeling under the effects of downturn.

Supporters of the CPM’s labour wing have stopped the functioning of the warehouses, which cover over 70,000sq ft in four buildings on Strand Road, for nearly a month and a half, demanding a substantial hike in salaries.

“Huge consignments of steel, clothes and raw materials of power projects, imported by around 40 companies, are in the warehouses. Employees supporting the Citu are not allowing the companies access to the warehouses,” P.N. Roy, the director and honorary secretary of Bengal Bonded Warehouse Association, which runs the warehouses.

Over 40 employees work in the Strand Road warehouses, where exporters and importers store consignments before loading or after unloading them at the Kidderpore dock. According to Roy, over 50 exporters and importers use the Strand Road facilities through their clearing agents every month. Goods worth several crores are currently locked in the four warehouses.

Pritimoy Chakraborty, the owner of an electronic goods company whose consignment of 3,000 DVD players from China is in one of the warehouses, said: “I am being forced to turn back representatives from other parts of the country, who are coming to collect their consignments. The union is holding everybody to ransom and business is suffering.”

According to Roy, the company held several meetings with employees and representatives of the union in January and offered them a hike. The union members stopped work on February 2, before the negotiations were completed.

“We have submitted a charter of demands. Unless our demands are met, we won’t let the warehouses open,” said a representative of the Citu-affiliated union.

On February 4, the Alipore police court had imposed Section 144 around the warehouses. “But we still can’t do normal business,” said Roy.

Kali Ghosh, the Citu state secretary, blamed the association for failing to resolve the issue. “They should have amicably resolved the matter with the workers,” he said.