20000124India port strike ends, power strike drags on

NEW DELHI: Indian unions called off a crippling strike by over 100,000 dockers at 11 state-run ports on Saturday after they reached a pay agreement with the government.

But a week-old strike by 87,000 workers opposed to power sector reforms in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, dragged on. The provincial government said it would crack down on the strike, which has hit water supplies.

Port union leaders told reporters their members would resume work on Sunday after five days of industrial action. They said Surface Transport Minister Rajnath Singh had provided assurances over a new wage structure during talks that lasted all day.

"The minister has assured us that he will resolve all our justifiable demands. Therefore we have agreed to withdraw the present strike and restore normalcy at the ports," said S.R. Kulkarni, president of the All India Port and Dock Workers' Federation.

"I have assured them that all the unsettled issues will be resolved by 31st March, 2000," Singh said.

MORE ALLOWANCES FOR WORKERS

The workers, who initially demanded that the government double their wages, rejected an offer of a 28 percent increase.

But union leaders later negotiated a change in the wage structure, which added enhanced housing allowances and other payments to the basic salary.

Remaining differences over how long the new structure should be valid - the unions insist on five years and the government 10 - and other issues will be settled over the next two months.

Vessels carrying sugar, fertilisers, steel and grains lined up outside the ports during the strike, but imports of less labour-intensive cargo, like crude oil and lubricants, were unaffected.

WAVE OF LABOUR UNREST

The port strike led a wave of labour unrest this week.

In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, police detained the leaders of the 87,000 employees striking against power sector reforms and sacked other employees.

The strikers oppose a plan to commercialise the Uttar Pradesh State Electricity Board (UPSEB) and break it into three entities for generation, distribution and transmission of power.

Officials said Shailendra Dubey, convenor of the UPSEB employees' joint action committee and A.K.Singh, general secretary of the U.P.Power Engineers Association, were held under the National Security Act.

Government officials said they would seek new recruits to replace employees who were sacked to send a signal to the strikers that the state will not budge.

"We are going to be very firm in dealing with these strikers," said Naresh Agarwal, power minister of the state.

"There is no question of any laxity with them because they are holding U.P.'s 160 million people to ransom," he told reporters.

Dubey, speaking to Reuters at a local police station, said there were no grounds for his detention and added the strikers had the support of workers in other provinces.

"I fail to understand what crime I have committed that an anti-terrorist law should be invoked against us," he said.

The strike has crippled large parts of the state and has hit drinking water supplies.-Reuters