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Coal strike ends; miners defiant still

Our Bureau

CALCUTTA, Nov. 22

AT least seven underground coal mines of Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) are reported to have been submerged due to stoppage of dewatering exercise by the pro-strike workers. The three-day CITU-sponsored strike in the mines of Coal India Ltd (CIL) and its subsidiaries ended on Wednesday, but these mines are unlikely to restart production till the accumulated water inside the mines is pumped out.

Except the giant Rajmahal opencast colliery of Eastern Coalfields Ltd, almost all mines of this subsidiary, Bharat Coking Coal Ltd and Central Coalfields Ltd remained unoperational on the third and last day of the strike.

And significantly, strikers and their leaders utilised the occasion to sound a note of warning to the effect that all major central trade unions operating in the industry may jointly organise an indefinite strike, if CIL failed to resolve the pending eco nomic issues, including revision of wages at the two-day meeting with the trade unions scheduled for November 24 and 25.

CIL sources admit that the three-day strike was almost total, particularly in the financially week subsidiaries where more than 60 per cent of CIL's six-lakh workforce is employed. The impact was virtually nil in the profit making subsidiaries whose mine s have a high degree of mechanisation. These are Northern Coalfields Ltd and Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd. The response was partial in Western Coalfields Ltd and South-Eastern Coalfields Ltd.

Analysing the impact of the strike called by only one union whose support base is limited when compared to non-striking central TUs such as INTUC, AITUC, BMS and HMS, the sources suggested that the Centre should issue guidelines as to how the financially weak subsidiaries could meet the workers' fresh economic demands. The problems confronted by these subsidiaries should be addressed in the right perspective by the Coal Ministry. Otherwise, all public sector coal outfits will have to face industrial rel ations problems.