The three-day national strike by coal workers against the government’s decision to open up the sector to private players led to almost zero production in most mines, and fuel shipments were completely blocked, said the union leader on Saturday.
Five trade unions, including the RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) of Coal India (CIL), have been on strike since Thursday to protest the government’s decision to launch commercial coal mining.
“The three-day strike in the coal industry is a big success…In most of the mines (in all the three days), production was nil and the dispatch was totally blocked,” Nathulal Pandey, president of HMS-affiliated Hind Khadan Mazdoor Federation, said.
Nevertheless, the Coal India official said that coal output was 4.81 lakh tons on Thursday, which is close to 38% of the usual 13 lakh tons per day, measured as an average of 10 days immediately before the closure of operations.
CIL dispatched 5.78 lakh tons on the first day of the strike. This is approximately 42% of the normal off-take of 14 LTs / day, as per the calculation referred to above.
The Ministry of Coal said that on Friday CIL produced 5.55 lakh tons of coal Friday, which is 42.7% of the 10-day average production (from June 22 to July 1) of 12.969 lakh tons.
On the second day of the strike, CIL dispatched 4.52 lakh tons of coal, which is 32.17% of the 10-day average production (from June 22 to July 1) of 14.0504 lakh tons, as per the Ministry official.
According to analysts, the impact on coal production due to a three-day strike is unlikely to have an impact on the power industry and electricity generation, as the power plants have a sufficient supply of dry fuel.
The meeting of the Central Trade Unions — HMS, HMS, AITUC, INTUC and CITU — was held on Saturday, Pandey said.
“During the meeting it was decided unanimously that programmes like gate meeting etc jointly against the commercial mining will start from tomorrow itself. In the meantime the bidders will be requested not to participate in the bidding process,” he said.
If the government does not cancel the auction for commercial coal mining, a one-day strike will be called on August 18, he said.
S Q Zama, Secretary General of the Indian National Mining Federation, affiliated with INTUC, said that about 75-80 per cent of the coal production did not occur during the three-day strike.
On average, CIL produces 1.5-2 million tons of coal per day, he said.
“The three-day strike has been 100 per cent peaceful, which in itself is a success,” Pandey said.
He said that the protest was self-oriented, and that the coal mines across the country, which were closed on Friday, were not working on Saturday as well.
“The state of law and order is natural,” he said.
The involvement of employees in the strike on the third day of the strike was about 80%, he said.
Tapan Sen, Secretary General of the Center of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), said that, compared to the previous two days, more workers joined the strike on Saturday.
“All trade unions are against commercial mining by private players. We are determined to resist that in the days to come,” Sen said.
CIL CMD Pramod Agrawal on Thursday had appealed to the striking workmen to resume their duties.
“Considering the COVID situation in the country and the international scenario, Coal India’s role assumes all the more importance and I earnestly appeal to you to resume your duties in the larger interest of the nation,” he said in a statement.
Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi also called on Coal India employees to end their strike and resume work on Thursday.
