People's Democracy

Coal Miners Prepare for

Nationwide Strike

M K Pandhe

THE discontent among coal workers all over India is growing due to the anti-public sector policies of the UPA-II government. The assurances given earlier by the government to the coal unions have not been implemented.  Even the decisions taken in the Joint Committees in coal industry have been kept pending for several years.  Some of the clauses of the wage agreement applicable from July 1, 2006 have not been implemented so far.

The present wage agreement is expiring on June 30, 2011 but even the Joint Committee for wage negotiations has not been constituted up till now.  The union coal minister made a solemn declaration that the wage settlement would be finalised before June 30, 2011 but the assurance remains on paper.

During the last 10 years, the employment in public sector coal industry has come down from 6.5 lakh to 4 lakh while at the same time the contract labour is being increasingly engaged in permanent and perennial jobs, violating the laws of the land.  At present nearly 40 per cent  of the coal production in Coal India is done through contract labour and through outsourcing of jobs.

THREAT OF

DENATIONALISATION

Though the Bill to denationalise coal mines is pending before parliament for several years and the union government could not get it passed due to the threat of the trade unions to resort to indefinite strike if the bill would be passed by parliament, the government is resorting to backdoor privatisation through several dubious means.  Nearly 250 coal blocks have been given to the private sector companies in the name of captive blocks for power generation having a total reserve of 55 billion tones of coal. Many of these private operators are selling coal in open market illegally, though statutorily only Coal India and Singareni Coal Mines have the authority to sell the coal in the market.

Private sector operators are paying paltry wages to the coal workers and they do not implement labour laws.  Many are not even paying the PF contribution and are depriving statutory benefits to the coal miners.  The trade union demand that National Coal Wage Agreement should be made applicable to all the workers in coal mines is not yet accepted by the union government.

While the government is closing down the public sector coal mines and allowing illegal mine operators to extract coal in hazardous conditions, it has sanctioned the formation of Coal Videsh Company to mine coal in Australia, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Africa and other countries.  Import of coal is increasing year by year and forty million tonnes of coal is being imported in India despite having huge coal reserves in the country.

In the name of reducing the cost of production, the Coal India management is not bothering about ensuring the safe working conditions even as frequent coal accidents are taking place in coal companies. The dreaded disease of pneumoconiosis is spreading due to inhaling of coal dust by the coal miners but sufficient measures are not taken by the managements.  The Director General of Mines Safety is not paying adequate attention to ensure safe working conditions in coal mines while the decisions of statutory enquiry committee of coal accidents do not get implemented in their true spirit.

The coal unions of all affiliations held a joint convention in March 2010 and decided to go on a three day nationwide strike to oppose the policy of disinvestment and cancel all the coal blocks given to the private sector.

STRIKE BY

CITU UNIONS

However, when the union minister of coal called a meeting of unions and assured to give some economic concessions, all the unions except CITU decided to withdraw the strike. The CITU decided to adhere to the decision of joint convention and called for one day strike on May 5, 2010 which was responded positively by majority of coal miners in the country. Later on, BMS and HMS unions also gave a call on another day on similar demands.

The absence of trade union unity was fully utilised by the central government and CIL management.  The union coal ministry announced disinvestment of 10 per cent of Coal India’s shares.  Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee assured the trade unions that the government would not resort to further disinvestment but now the coal ministry has announced further disinvestment of 16 per cent of Coal India share holdings, thus the assurance given earlier was blatantly violated.

Despite union coal mnistry’s offer of giving shares to workers at concessional rate, the workers refused to take the shares of Coal India and expressed their disapproval of disinvestment in public sector coal industry.  The chairman of Coal India had publically expressed surprise at workers not opting for taking shares of Coal India.

The government of India has appointed 40 independent members of the Board of Directors but workers representatives were not included in them. Most of the Board members had nothing to do with coal industry and they have only used their position for their selfish interests.

It was a condition imposed by the government that the Coal India would be given navaratna status only if it would put the shares of CIL in the share market.  Now the ministry of coal is toying with the idea of further disinvesting Coal India and giving it maharatna status.

NATIONAL

CONVENTION

A national convention was held at Nagpur on May 11, 2011 to consider all these developments and chalk out a programme of action. Over 50 leading activists belonging to Indian National Mine Workers Federation (INTUC), Indian Mine Workers federation (AITUC), Akhil Bharatiya Khadan Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), Hind Khadan Mazdur Federation (HMS) and All India Coal Workers Federation (CITU) participated.

Speakers belonging to all the Federations strongly criticized the policy of the union government and Coal India for adopting anti-worker policy and resorting to reckless privatisation drive. Speakers demanded that contract workers should not be engaged in coal industry. Pending its abolition, the contract workers should be paid the same rate of wages as regular employees. The need to preserve the unity in struggle was emphasised by several speakers who stressed that the division among the trade unions during the last agitation should not be repeated this time.

Many speakers pointed out that the decisions taken in the standardisation committee of Joint Bipartite Committee in Coal Industry must be implemented forthwith.  Even the outcome of the High Power Committee on Contract Labour is yet to reach a final stage.

Jibon Roy, speaking on behalf of All India Coal Workers Federation, welcomed the unity achieved by the five unions.  He observed that without a determined and long drawn struggle, the government and the Coal India management would not accept the legitimate demands of the workers.

M K Pandhe, speaking on behalf of the presidium, noted that the government of India was determined to wipe out the public sector coal industry and hand it over to mafia, defeating the entire purpose of nationalisation of coal industry.  He criticised the policy of government of India to give more emphasis on imported nuclear power stations than development of thermal and hydel power stations.  He emphasised the need for strengthening the united struggle and not to succumb to the pressure on coal ministry when they offer minor concessions.

Except CITU, all the unions demanded reintroduction of voluntary retrenchment scheme for women workers.  The CITU opposed the demand on the ground that it was an attempt to eliminate women’s employment in coal industry.  The CITU’s objection had to be mentioned in the declaration adopted by the Convention.

The convention decided to launch a movement if the union coal ministry failed to ensure finalisation of Coal wage agreement by the end of June 2011.  A national convention of all coal unions will be held at Ranchi on June 21, 2011 which will be attended by 500 delegates from all the coal unions.  The convention will decide the date of strike in coal industry.  It was further decided to hold company level conventions by June 15, 2011 to popularise the demands raised by Nagpur Convention.

The Convention decided to issue notice to the union ministry of coal and chairman Coal India about the action programme decided by the convention and appealed to all the regular employees and contract workers to prepare for long drawn struggle so that the demand for wage revision is achieved and the drift towards privatisation is stopped.