Conciliatory talks to be held on Thursday

KOCHI: In an effort to end the strike called by truck drivers at International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT), Vallarppadam, labour department officials will hold mediation talks with representatives of employers and truck drivers on Thursday. Though the meeting was originally scheduled for Monday, it had to be postponed as the representatives some of the employers couldn't turn up.
Labour officials, on Monday evening, held talks to resolve the truck drivers' strike at the International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT) in Vallarpadam.
The strike which began on Friday night has affected vessel operations at the terminal. At least one vessel, MV Lal Bahadur Shastri, was diverted to Tuticorin fearing delay in loading and unloading operations at Vallarpadam.
MV Lal Bahadur Shastri, operated by the Shipping Corporation of India, proceeded to Tuticorin where it was to anchor on Sunday and Monday. "It is now on its way back to Vallarpadam after completing operations at Tuticorin," an ICTT official said.
ICTT had outsourced the deployment of trucks for loading and unloading containers to two logistics companies. One of them terminated the contract with ICTT without settling the dues to the truck drivers, who have since been demanding compensation. Truckers with the other company have also joined the strike.
"Now we have to pay the price as the contractor has not settled the workers' dues. We are now carrying out the loading and unloading operations with our internal staff, which makes the whole process slow. The vessels and ICTT are suffering losses because of the delay," the ICTT official said.
Mainstream trade unions have not joined the strike. "They (the truck drivers) had given us a note citing their demands. We said we would get back to them after studying the issue. But then they decided to strike work," said Charles George, general convener of the trade union coordination committee
which has representatives from CITU, INTUC, HMS, CTTU, BMS, STU and TUCI.
The coordination committee had called for a strike from January 25 raising certain other demands of the truck drivers, but it was postponed following conciliation talks by labour department officials.