Coal India unions call off strike

The strike is to protest a stake sale and e-auction of cancelled coal blocks

Major trade unions representing state-run Coal India's (CIL) workers have called off a strike planned for Monday to protest a stake sale and e-auction of cancelled coal blocks proposed by an ordinance with a provision for commercial mining by private companies.

Following a meeting of union leaders with offcials of the coal ministry here Saturday, secretary general of the Indian National Mineworkers Federation S.Q. Zama said the strike has been postponed pending a meeting with Coal Minister Piyush Goyal. The date of the meeting with the minister has, however, not not been decided yet.

Zama said the unions would keep resisting any move that could undermine the position of Coal India, and added that competition from private companies would make CIL a sick company, risking the jobs of most of its 370,000 workers.

"The government might try to bulldoze us because of their strength in parliament, but we will put up resistance to the extent possible," Zama said.

The All India Trade Union Congress has said the coal ordinance could be used "as a backdoor entry for taking over the entire coal sector by the private corporates".

AITUC general secretary Gurudas Dasgupta had said that if a vital national resource was privatised, "national interest will be jeopardised and Coal India will be weakened".

Describing the government's move to reallocate the blocks by e-auction as "not at all a welcome decision", the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has said it condemns any move to nullify the Coal Nationalisation Act.

"The CITU opposes any move for denationalisation of coal industry and calls upon the workers and the trade union movement to unitedly resist such disastrous move of allowing commercial mining by private entities at the initiation stage itself," CITU said in a statement.

"The CITU also urges government to reconsider its decision to auction those coal blocks again to private entities and instead vest all of them to Coal India," it said.

All India Coal Workers Federation (AICWF) general secretary Jibon Roy said that if the government implemented any enabling provision allowing commercial mining by private companies, the coal workers may proceed on a nationwide strike.

The ordinance has been brought in to resolve issues arising out of the Supreme Court cancelling allocations of 214 coal blocks last month.