Coal news and updates

Plans by India's coal monopoly to buy billions of dollars of new machinery and outsource work are facing resistance from powerful unions worried about job losses, in a potential blow to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's promise to bring electricity to all.

Coal India Ltd, the world's biggest coal miner, has already doubled output growth since Modi came to power two years ago, owing to the removal of hurdles to production like environmental clearances and land acquisition. The increase turned coal shortages at power plants to oversupply, making it one of the administration's biggest successes. 

The next phase of restructuring the notoriously inefficient behemoth is likely to be harder, however, and is crucial to the government's ambition to sell 10 per cent of the $27 billion company to raise funds for further growth and investment. New Delhi also wants to double annual output to 1 billion tonnes by 2019/20 to meet future demand, and to do that it must radically increase productivity. Coal India's output¬per¬man shift is estimated at one¬eighth of Peabody Energy Corp, the world's largest private coal producer that recently filed for bankruptcy protection. Already, labour unions, with a history of hostility towards management, are pushing back on Coal India's plans, fearing modernization and outsourcing will hit jobs, said leaders of two unions that cover a majority of the company's 371,000 employees. 

Strikes, sometimes every few months, have disrupted output, although under Modi the unions have been more cooperative. "High¬tech mining will mean fewer job opportunities for labourers and no job guarantee for existing employees," said Baij Nath Rai, president of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), which says it represents 100,000 Coal India employees and contractors. "We strongly protest this, and have already taken up the issue with the government. They will not dare do anything if there is a strong protest." The BMS's view is likely to carry extra weight, as it is loosely affiliated with the Hindu nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which is the ideological parent of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). COAL INDIA UNIT SAYS OUTSOURCING WORKS Rai said Piyush Goyal, minister for power, coal and renewable energy, had been trying to convince unions to play along with the reforms. Early last year, the unions planned a strike to protest against moves to open up the coal sector to private firms and sell a 10 per cent stake. But they called off a five¬day stoppage on its second day after Goyal formed a committee to look into their concerns so that they "do not have to go on strike again". Coal India officials also say they constantly talk to workers on various issues, but union leaders, including BMS's Rai, said they would resist any move deemed "anti¬labourer"

"The government is doing this slowly, so that there is not much protest all of a sudden," said D.D. Ramanandan of the All India Coal Workers Federation, which says it represents more than 100,000 Coal India employees and contractors. "We have consistently opposed this policy and will sit together with all the unions to decide the future course of action," Ramanandan said. Federal Coal Secretary Anil Swarup and several senior Coal India officials said the company planned to push ahead. It wants to spend billions of dollars over the next few years, including around $1.3 billion this year, to buy equipment and expand mines, where workers often use shovels and picks to dig for coal underground, one of the officials said. The company also plans to stop filling most vacancies arising from retirements over the next three years, and outsource more mining to private companies, the officials added.

Source: Economic Times