Big victory for
Colombo portworkers
International Viewpoint # 238 • November 9, 1992
SRI LANKA
Gunawardena, was a key minister in the MEP government of S.W.R.D. Bandarnaike which lasted from 1956 to 1959.
The leaders of the UNP and SLFP-led unions organized a press conference on August 25, at which they declared that they were not associated with the trade
On September 16, a one-month work-to-rule campaign by Colombo's 16,000 port workers came to an end.
Described by Lloyd's of London as "the leading port in South Asia", the Sri Lankan capital's state-run facility ranks 25th in the world, and has been targetted in the United National Party (UNP) government's privatization plans. Indeed, the Colombo Daily News titled its September 10 editorial opposing the workers' action, "Don't kill the golden goose".
In the following article, a leader of the Ceylon Mercantile, Industrial and General Workers' Union (CMU) describes the events, while examining the historical background and analyzing the factors which contributed to the victorious union action underway, but that they were in support of the demand for payment of the COLA.
The action lasted one month. In addition to the go-slow, workers refused to do overtime work during meal hours and between 4:00 and 6:30 in the morning. They also rejected the incentive payments frequently paid by individual private shipping agents to speed up work - which often obliges the workers to dangerously overload trucks and equipment.
As a result, productivity is said to have dropped by anywhere from 50 to 75%2, with estimates putting the loss incurred by the SLPA at Rs. 200m.3 outcome. BALA TAMPOE — September 17, 1992
N August 17th, shortly after the 13th anniversary celebrations of the Sri Lankan Port Authority (SLPA)!, the entire blue and white-collar workforce of the Port of Colombo began a work-to-rule campaign over the issue of a Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) indexed to the Colombo Consumers Price Index. Payments had been sporadic from the opening of the SLPA until they were finally frozen in July 1988.
The action was initiated by the CMU, which represented only 2,600 of the port workers. Nevertheless, all 16,000 workers joined, in spite of the fact that the leaders of the other unions present at the port did not extend any support.
At the outset, the UNP-led Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya (JSS) was the biggest union at the port, with some 6,000 members. Ever since the UNP secured a two-
24
thirds parliamentary majority in the 1977 elections, the JSS has been the biggest union throughout the public sector.
From its inception, the Port Authority was able to maintain absolute sway over the port workers, with the active collaboration of the JSS leaders. At its peak, the JSS had 9,000 members at the port, but its influence has been declining steadily.
The next biggest union before the workto-rule campaign was the Sri Lankan Freedom Party (SLFP)-led Sri Lankan Independent Employees Union, with about 3,000 members. It prospered under the pre-1977 SLFP governments, only to see its fortunes decline in tandem with those of the SLFP.
The Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP)-led Harbour and Dock Workers Union was the smallest of the four, with some 500 members. It held tremendous sway with workers when its leader, Philip
Throughout the action, the SLPA claimed it was under a strict government order to resist payment of the COLA. The government feared that there would be a domino effect - particularly among state plantation workers - if port workers were to join the ranks of workers in the Ceylon Electricity Board and Petroleum Corporation, who receive COLA payments by statute.
In early September, the SLPA produced an offer to pay a "profit-sharing allowance" in lieu of the COLA payments. While accepted by representatives of the UNP, SLFP and MEP unions, the CMU rejected it - based on the unanimous decision taken by a quickly organized general membership meeting of its port branch, which now counted 5,000 members in its ranks.
### Management schemes
It was argued that an allowance determined by profit-sharing was not secure, subject as the Port's fortunes are to SLA's various management schemes, which include the privatization of the engineering division by December next.
At that same meeting, it was decided that the CMU should seek a signed mandate from all port workers to negotiate a satisfactory settlement, thereby bringing all the workers engaged in the work-torule campaign into a united framework. Nearly 13,000 signatures were gathered over the following week.
The CMU rejection of the SPA's offers were supported in the September 1. The SLPA was established under an Act of the Sri Lankan Parliament, with effect from August 1, 1979. 2. The Island, September 12, 1992 3. Haraya, September 11, 1992. One Sri Lankan Rupee is worth about $0.02.
The intifada is alive
November 9, 1992
15 pledge of solidarity from the United Federation of Labour and Government Workers Federation (led by the Nava Sama Samaja Party, Sri Lankan section of the Fourth International), which saw developments at the port as signifying a major development in the fight against the