(Minews) - Unions at state-run miners Coal India Ltd. and Singareni Collieries Co. called a five day strike next month to protest the government’s plan to end its monopoly in mining and selling of coal.
The five leading unions, including the one backed by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, will strike from Jan. 6 to Jan. 10, S.Q. Zama, secretary general at the Indian National Mineworkers Federation, said yesterday by phone from the eastern Indian town of Ranchi, where the unions met.
The strike will be to protest a bill now in parliament allowing the government to open the coal industry to private companies, including local units of foreign miners, Zama said. The Indian National Mineworkers Federation is a unit of the opposition Congress party-backed Indian National Trade Union Congress. Stoppage of a day’s work will lead to a production loss of about 1.3 million metric tons, valued at about 2 billion rupees ($31.4 million).
“Our decision is firm,” Zama said. “All the unions are united in this struggle.”
The unions submitted a 10-point demand to federal Coal Secretary Anil Swarup. Demands include stopping the move to privatize mining and the improvement of workers’ benefits.
The government will resume “active movement” on Coal India’s share sale early next year, Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal told the CNBC TV18 news channel in an interview broadcast last week. The plan is to raise 157.4 billion rupees from the sale.
In the same week, the bill to bring private miners into commercial coal mining won approval in the lower house of parliament. It now needs endorsement from the upper house, where the BJP is in a minority.
The left party-backed Centre of Indian Trade Unions didn’t join yesterday’s meeting, but later said it will support the five-day strike.
The unions withdrew a strike planned on Nov. 24 after assurances they will get a chance to meet Swarup or his boss Goyal. The BJP-backed Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh didn’t support the decision to strike at that time.
