Indian dockworker unions set to strike over pay on July 16

Indian dockworker unions set to strike over pay on July 16    Representatives from five organized dockworker federations were in Delhi this week to hammer out a deal with India’s Shipping Minister T.R. Baalu over pay raises and retroactive reimbursements, some of which date back from 2005, the Hindu Business Line reported Thursday.
   Baalu had invited the representatives in an attempt to stave off a possible strike by workers at the nation’s 12 major ports that’s due to begin July 16. However, the union leaders told Indian press that their demands weren’t met and they’d be left with no alternative but to strike.
   The wage demands relate to allowances and productivity-linked compensation. The unions are also calling for an immediate 13.5 percent hike in pay, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2007, as relief against inflation over the past 18 months. Also causing friction between the unions and the national government is that the Shipping Ministry seems to be stepping on the toes of the 12 port authorities that it oversees.
   Union leaders suggested that they had worked out deals with individual ports over pay, only to have the ministry intervene.
   In a statement, the unions said the ministry had “virtually rejected the agreements arrived at between the port management and the federations particularly when ports are autonomous bodies and central government does not give any subsidy or financial assistance to the working of the major ports.'