Ongoing strike activity for protest against 100% FDI in coal sector was called off after the intervention of Coal Minister Mr Pralhad Joshi.
In a tweet addressing to the Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), Mr Joshi appealed the union and all the stakeholders of CIL that there was no intention to get FDI into CIL or SCCL. He insisted that the government was open for discussion with all the unions on this matter.
It is pertaining to note that BMS had initiated the 5-day protest which had started from Monday. However, after the assurance of the Coal minister, BMS union had opted to withdraw the strike activity while welcoming the decision taken by the government.
Other coal unions had also joined in the band wagon, by successfully carrying out a one-day strike on Tuesday as per their earlier scheduled plan. However, the announcement made by the minister was not greeted with please among others.
In fact, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has called an open mass convention on 30 Sep’19 near Parliament to announce a struggle program against sale of the country’s natural resources. Notably, the union had raised concern over foreign company’s involvement in coal mining and a possible case of coal sales in export markets.
As a result of the strike, CIL’s largest coal producing subsidiary-SECL had recorded 210.7 thousand MT coal output as on 24 Sep’19 against the set target of 415 thousand MT, while output at other subsidiaries were also affected. It is expected that CIL would make up for loss in production by subsequently raising its progressive output target.
Overall, it is fair to say that strike activity was short lived and didn’t had much impact on demand for imports at Indian ports.
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