Coal India stake sale: Trade unions up the ante

Major trade unions of Coal India opposed to any government proposal to 10 per cent stake sale in the PSU will soon chalk out a strategy to take their protest forward.
"It would be a difficult proposition for CIL (Coal India) workers and operating CTUs (central trade unions) to cooperate with CIL if the government insists on or proceeds with any further disinvestment in CIL," Indian National Mine Workers' Federation (INTUC) Secretary General S Q Zama told PTI.
The operating unions will meet shortly to decide on the future course of action, he said.
"All the unions functioning in the coal sector are opposing the proposed disinvestment of Coal India," D D Ramanandan, Vice-President of the All India Coal Workers Federation, one of five unions at the company, said.

He added that "the real intention of the government is to privatise the coal sector. So, we are opposing it".
In a recent letter to Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal, INTUC had said CTUs are convinced that repeated disinvestment in CIL, which will be now around 30 per cent of the total stake, dilutes the public sector character of the central PSU.

It further said that despite the assurance by the government in January that the law of land will prevail, more than 80 per cent of employees are still sitting idle without clearance of their dues and have not received salary from April 2015.

In January, the coal trade unions had gone on a strike, but called it off mid-way after an agreement with the government, which ruled out denationalisation of Coal India and promised to protect interests of the PSU's employees.
The government will sell 10 per cent stake in Coal India through a public offer, which could fetch over Rs 20,000 crore to the exchequer.
The Department of Disinvestment (DoD) is in the process of appointing merchant bankers for managing the stake sale.
The CTUs will also join all-India strike on September 2.
The unions and the government are at loggerheads over a 12-point charter of demands and labour reforms.