Coal India says workers' strike cuts daily output by half

State-owned Coal India (CIL) today said the two-day strike by workers affected its daily output by almost half as total production for these two days stood at 1.47 million tonnes.
The staff attendance was also less than half on January 6 and 7, when the coal workers across the country had gone on strike.
"Due to strike attendance, production and dispatches were affected. On January 6, the production was 6,45,300 tonnes and offtake was 6,51,600 tonnes. On January 7, production was 8,17,300 tonne and offtake was 7,20,700 tonne," Coal India said in a regulatory filing.
"This is against the daily average production in the month of December, 2014 of 15,16,200 tonnes and offtake of 14,16,500 tonnes," the company said.

"The attendance on January 6 was 1,03,826 man days, on January 7, 2015 1,06,568 man days against the attendance of 2,52,070 man days on December 30," the company said.
Nearly five lakh coal workers had gone on a strike on Tuesday after trade unions gave a call for the biggest ever industrial action in four decades.

They were protesting against what they called attempts for "disinvestment in Coal India and denationalisation of coal mining".
The unions had given call for a five-day strike, but called it off after the end of the second day, following an over six-hour-long marathon meeting between trade union leaders and Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal, among others.

Four major trade unions -- Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and Hind Mazdoor Sangh (HMS) -- observed strike on January 6, and January 7 at Coal India Ltd and its subsidiaries, CIL said in a statement.
Another union, CITU was also part of the strike but its name did not figure in CIL's statement.