**UPDATE 12th December – A new five-year labour agreement has been approved and strike seems to be off.

Original Article:

A labour dispute between the Indian government and port workers may result in strike action this month, after an agreement appeared to be reached back in August.

Just four months ago, a strike at state run ports was called off at the eleventh hour, and we were led to believe that was the end of the matter. However, port workers unions have recently announced that an indefinite strike will come into effect from December 17th.

It appears that the government have not addressed the unions concerns about pay and productivity as first thought and have been given a deadline of December 15th to resolve the outstanding issues and avoid the strike.

 If the strike goes ahead, it is only expected to impact state run ports, which will mean major disruption at twelve of India’s major ports. Privately owned ports, such as Mundra, Kattupalli and Ennore, are not currently expected to join.

It has been a difficult few months for ocean freight movements through India, as a serious of issues have already led to congestion and delays in recent times. A strike across several major ports will undoubtedly make an already difficult situation much worse.    

Hopefully, the government and unions come to an agreement in the next few days and the strike can be avoided.