Unions unite to threaten massive 5-day coal strike

In a last-ditch attempt to prevent coal workers from going ahead with their planned five-day strike from Tuesday, Jharkhand's assistant chief labour commissioner R C Srivastava has called a meeting of Coal India Ltd officials and representatives of all the five trade unions at his Dhanbad office today.

The trade unions have joined hands for a protest action, which they say is unprecedented in the history of India's coal industry. The workers are protesting against the recently-passed coal block allocation ordinance which paves the way for privatisation of coal mines.

This threatens to be the biggest ever strike in CIL in recent memory, as all the five workers` unions in the various subsidiaries of state monopoly Coal India have decided to join the strike.

If it goes ahead, the strike would have serious implications for Indian industry and particularly the power sector, as electricity producers are already struggling under a perennial shortage of fuel.

Coal India said it is transporting extra coal to the power plants to help them tide over the likely disruption of supplies.

Among other branches, the strike will hamper work at the mines Dhanbad-based Western Coalfields Ltd, one of CIL's most productive subsidiaries.

The workers feel that the Coal Mines Special Provisions Ordinance allows private parties to sell coal in the open market, which the unions say can be the first step toward privatizing CIL.

Though the government had earlier expressed willingness to talk, the unions boycotted the meeting with union power and coal minister Piyush Goyal.

S Q Zama, general secretary of INTUC-affiliated Rashtriya Koyala Khadan Sangh (RKKMS), said unions will stick to their stand and ensure that the strike is complete in all mines of WCL.

A press release issued by WCL says that chairman-cum-managing director R R Mishra has appealed to workers to refrain from the strike.

General manager of Bharat Coking Coal Ltd D A Yadav said on Sunday, ''Let us see what happens on Monday. Our priority would be to avoid strike-like situation at any cost as it would be a big loss to the company, with the power sectors being the worst-hit.''