People's Democracy

Coal Miners On Path of Struggle

M.K. Pandhe

COAL miners all over the country have been left with no other alternative but to resort to countrywide strike action since the central government and management of Coal India Ltd (CIL) is refusing to fulfill the commitments given in writing to the trade unions in the recent past.

The CIL management signed a settlement on wage-revision with INTUC, BMS, AITUC and HMS on December 23, 2000, but it has not paid the arrears of wages till now and there is no indication that payment will be made by the end of June 2001 when the National Coal Wage Agreement-VI (NCWA) will come to an end. The CITU did not sign the settlement since there were some derogatory clauses in the agreement and CITU’s viewpoint was not recorded in the agreement.

The pension scheme prepared by the management gives paltry benefit to the workers. However, even the workers do not get that paltry pension after retirement and several thousand retired workers are deprived of the pensionary benefit. The Coal Mines Provident Fund (CMPF) Organisation is seething with corruption and workers have to pay heavy bribes to get their work done in this organisation. There is strong resentment prevailing among the coal miners about the pension scheme and the functioning of the CMPF office.

Due to mismanagement of coal mines and the policy of importing over two million tonnes of coal, the ECL and BCCL have become sick industries and referred to BIFR. The other profit making companies under CIL pay more income tax to the central government than the losses of sick companies. The trade unions demanded that CIL should be unitary organisation so that loss-making companies can be given financial help for revival and revamping from the profit making segments. The central government is however refusing to accept this legitimate demand with the result that loss-making companies are facing acute financial difficulties.

The Expenditure Reform Committee (Geetha Krishnan) appointed by the central government has recommended about coal industry as follows:

"Unrestricted entry of private developers could be allowed in exploration and production of coal by expediting the amendment to the Coal Mines Nationalization Act 1973, a Bill which is pending before Parliament."

These recommendations if accepted by the government will liquidate Coal India Ltd and its subsidiaries would be privatised one by one while the bipartite forum in coal industry would be given a go bye.

All the TU's in coal industry opposed these proposals. The ministry of coal agreed to have a dialogue with the trade unions but no meaningful dialogue has started so far. The decision to hold joint discussion for preparing revival package for sick coal companies has been put in cold storage by the CIL management.

The CIL management in all the subsidiary companies has been increasingly engaging contract labour and reducing the regular employment. More than one third of 250 million tonnes of coal production is being done through contract labour. Though the contract labour law prohibits contract labour in permanent and perennial nature of jobs, the coal managements are blatantly violating the laws. The situation has gone to such an extent that some trade union leaders have been taking benami contracts in coal mines and conniving for illegal working of contract labour system.

In Central Coalfield Ltd (CCL), other trade unions except CITU have agreed to permit the job of removal of overburden through contractors and helping the management to engage more contract labour in coal mines. In Mahanadi Coalfields, majority of the workforce are contract workers. In SECL and WCL also several production jobs are performed by contract workers.

The reckless resorting to Voluntary Retirement Scheme has led to creation of shortage of manpower in several mines. In ECL alone the management had to admit shortage of 7000 loaders due to VRS which affected production of coal. Chaotic redeployment policies have added to the problem of inefficient management. The situation was made worse by arbitrary transfer of 700 officers who have been stationed in one place for a long time and this has only added burden of transfer cost on the management.

The decision of the management not to recruit any woman worker and remove all the women workers working in mine has exposed the gender bias of the coal management. Women workers are given only "monetary compensation" for not accepting the jobs in coal mines. Even though women workers are ready to work on machines they are denied job opportunity in coal mines. Women workers are asked to accept VRS and substitute male dependent in mining jobs.

Curtailment of existing facility in a unilateral manner has become a regular managerial culture. Reduction in educational and medical facilities, stopping programme of housing construction, lack of adequate drinking water and sanitary arrangements in working class colonies etc have become weapons in the armoury of the coal managements in the name of cutting down of costs to become competitive.

Illegal mining of coal in the abandoned mines is done by contractors with full knowledge of the colliery management. Accidents in such mines are not reported while DGMS officials behave like silent spectators. Workers in these mines are paid paltry wages and no labour law is made applicable to them. Local administration of course gets a share of the booty.

Health and safety of the workers in the coal mines is a common casualty. Management does not observe the safety rules and quite often closes down the mine on the plea that the conditions in the mines are not safe. The DGMS office quite often gives them a helping hand in the matter. A large number of coal miners have become victims of the dreaded disease "pneumoconiosis" , which has no cure. Workers are forced to accept VRS if they fall a prey to this disease, violating ILO standard that such worker should be properly looked after by the management. Specific suggestions for observance of safety rules given by the workers are often ignored by the management.

The meeting of the working committee of the All India Coal Workers Federation held at Raniganj on May 21, reviewed the developments in the coal industry and decided to launch a countrywide movement in all the coal mines against the arbitrary policies of the management. It has issued an appeal to the coal miners to be prepared to down their tools after July 1, 2001 if the management failed to settle their demands by the end of June.

Singareni Colliery unions have already given strike notice for payment of arrears of wages. The CITU had discussion with other central trade unions for joint struggle and they are also considering a countrywide strike action to force the management to accept the common demands. If all trade unions agree then a common date for industrial action can be fixed in a joint meeting of trade unions.

The AICWF has decided to hold demonstrations all over the country to press for the demands raised by the AICWF and highlight the need for countrywide strike action, which alone would force the management to implement the commitments given to the unions in the past.

If the coal management and the Union Ministry of Coal do not act immediately then the nationwide strike in the industry would become inevitable.