Communist Web
Tuesday 8th February 2000 9.30pm gmt
India's Electricity and Port Workers Strike
CALCUTTA, Every major port in India has been brought to a standstill as more
than
100,000 dock and port workers went on strike across India following
breakdown of talks
between their trade unions and the BJP-led federal government in Delhi.
At the same time, the northern electricity grid that supplies power to
nearly half of the
country was switched off when electricity workers including members of the
officers'
association and the engineering staff struck work. Both strikes have
continued unabated
since January 18, and the power workers' strike would spill over to the rest
of the country
following a call for a one-day all-India power strike on January 24. The
port strike was
always a threat to the Vajpayi government since the federal minister for
surface transport
boasted in public that the "decision to privatise the ports as per the
wishes of the World
Bank shall be carried out and the protestations of the `anti-national' TU
bodies shall
simply be ignored by the government."
