Editorial
Water transport strike
Negotiated settlement should come forth promptly
THE strike by inland water transport workers brought the sector to a near standstill, as thousands of launch passengers found themselves stranded at different river terminals across the country on the first day. The strike is reported to have been called after a tripartite meeting among the government, owners and workers, convened to hammer out a deal on introducing a new pay scale for the workers, failed to produce any results.
Although the workers after repeated reminders for redressing their grievances resorted to the strike, still they cannot be insensitive to the suffering the public are subjected to on account of their withdrawal of services. They cannot afford any sense of alienation from the public who are hardly responsible for the non-fulfillment of their demands. The strike call did reflect the workers' eagerness to get their demands fulfilled but it certainly showed no concern for people.
The workers' demand of a new pay scale appears to be based on sound reasoning since their pay package has borne no relevance whatsoever to the rates of inflation and general price hike in the last 30 years. It is not possible to justify a river transport worker getting a basic salary of not even a couple of thousands since 1980s. It is not clear why the owners could not address the issue before the workers' grievances blew up into such a widespread strike action.
The shipping minister has said that the crisis should be resolved by the owners and workers. But can the government wash its hands off when passengers and traders are put to great hardship because of labour unrest, let alone the fact that interests of both public and private sector employees are involved here. If the strike call by the workers was injudicious, it is equally so for the government not to have engaged the transport owners and the labour in a sustained process of negotiations to yield results.
The government has to make determined efforts, instead of taking a hands-off position, to end the strike that has cut off many places with the capital affecting public mobility and trade severely. It is also imperative that the people be kept informed of the moves the government is making to resolve the crisis.
We are hoping that by the time this column appears, a headway will have been made in resolving differences between the two sides with the strike being called off.
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