Coal news and updates

Fissure among CIL unions

November 25: A day after the one-day strike called by Coal India (CIL) trade unions was called off, the fissure among the trade unions has come to the fore with the CITU-backed AICWF claiming it is not in agreement with others who seek to meet the government to talk out the privatisation issue.

“We are not going to meet the coal minister or anybody in the government. People who are doing that prove themselves as weak entities,” a senior leader of AICWF told ICMW.

Earlier, BMS-backed union had backed out from the strike and made it clear it would not join any agitation against the NDA government’s move to allow private entry into commercial mining.

Of the remaining four unions, three others backed by INTUC, HMS and AITUC decided to call off the strike following a meeting with coal ministry officials two days before the event.

“We were neither in favour of calling off, nor meeting the minister for talks. In fact, our members held a two-hour demonstration on Monday to press for our demand,” the AICWF leader said.

About the future course of action, he said, “We cannot talk about what others will do. We will stick to our stand no matter if the other parties join us or stay away.”

The major demand from the unions was the scrapping of the enabling clause from the Coal Mines Ordinance-2014, which allows commercial mining by private firms and divestment of at least 10 per cent stake in Coal India, among others.