Upping the ante against the Centre’s decision to auction four coal blocks in the State for commercial mining, trade unions of the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL), affiliated to the five Central trade unions INTUC, AITUC, CITU, HMS and BMS, have joined hands with the Telangana Boggu Gani Karmika Sangham (TBGKS) to go on strike for three days starting December 9.
The five major trade unions have served a notice on the management of the State-owned SCCL to go on a strike for 72 hours from December 9 to 11 to press for a 12-point charter of demands mainly to mount pressure on the Centre stop auction of coal blocks.
The ruling TRS affiliated TBGKS has already sent a notice to the company’s management five days ago conveying its decision to go on strike on or after December 9 to press for a five-point charter of demands including removal of the four coal blocks of the SCCL – Kalyan Khani Block-6, Koyagudem Block-III, Sattupalli Block-III and Shravanapalli from the Coal Ministry’s list of commercial coal mine auction.
The notice copy signed by the representatives of all the five central trade unions contained 11 other demands.
The main demands include hike in salaries of the contract workers employed in the SCCL as recommended by the high-power committee on par with the Coal India Limited (CIL), payment of ₹1 crore ex gratia each to the kin of deceased employees of the recent mine accidents, expediting the implementation of the dependent job scheme, among others.
Addressing a joint press conference at Godavarikhani on Tuesday, the leaders of the Singareni unions and TBGKS vowed to spearhead the joint strike in all the 45 coal mines of the SCCL in pursuit of their charter of demands.
They demanded that the four coal blocks be allocated to SCCL. In July last year, all the major trade unions spearheaded a 72-hour strike in the SCCL coal fields against the Centre’s alleged move to opening up coal mining to private sector.
