The Hindu

• Requests by authorities to end it have not yielded results
• Workers suddenly stopped work on May 2
• They want the stevedores to pay in cash

Mangalore, May 8: The “go slow” by cargo handling workers of New Mangalore Port since last Friday has affected handling of fertilizers (urea) and container traffic. As against a daily average of 505 tonnes of urea per shift per gang handled during April, the port has handled an average of 267 tonnes per shift per gang as on date this month.

The unloading of containers per shift per gang too has dropped to 32 as against 62 in April.

A press release from the secretary, New Mangalore Port Trust, here on Wednesday stated that unloading of urea in two vessels had been affected. The handling of containers which brought raw materials for local cashew industries had been affected. Due to this, a container vessel sailed out on May 6 without taking 250 export containers from Mangalore.

The release said that workers suddenly stopped work on May 2. After the intervention of the Assistant Labour Commissioner (Centre), work started with the understanding that normalcy will be restored. However, workers adopted “go slow” tactics from the second shift. It is understood that their intention was to make stevedores pay in cash. Earlier, they were paid by cheque wherein income tax was to be recovered.

The workers demanded extra payment from the stevedores, the release said. Repeated requests by the chairman and the port management to the workers, leaders and their family members had not yielded any positive response, the release added.

President of the Association of New Mangalore Port Stevedores M. Shekar Pujari earlier told presspersons that the stevedores were forced to pay Rs. 95 lakh in demurrage due to the delay. The work done since May 2 to date was only 30 per cent of the port’s normal productivity.