SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Sept 27: The five central trade unions have deferred their proposed three-day strike in Coal India Limited (CIL) and Singareni Coal Company for eight days after talks with Chairman PM Prasad in New Delhi today.
Now, the three-day strike would be held from October 12 to 14. Earlier, the strike was scheduled from October 5 to 7 in all the subsidiary coal companies of CIL and the Singareni Coal Company.
A senior trade union leader and JBCCI (Joint Bipartite Committee for the Coal Industry) member (alternative) of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Lakhan Lal Mahto giving this information said that at the meeting today CIL Chairman PM Prasad appealed to the trade union leaders to defer the strike as he is trying his best to thrash out the solution. If the solution does not come in a week, the trade union are free to go on strike, he added.
The representatives of all five national trade unions agreed to defer the strike proposed from October 5. They also fixed October 12 to 14 as new dates of the strike if the CIL management does not pay the salary of September as per the NCW-XI agreement.
At the meeting in Delhi, besides Chairman PM Prasad, Director Personnel (DP) Vinay Ranjan and General Manager (GM) Gautam Banerjee represented the CIL.
From the trade unions, K Lakshma Reddy (BMS), Nathulal Pandey (HMS), Ramendra Kumar (AITUC), DD Ramanandan (CITU) and Kumar Jayamangal alias Anup Singh (INTUC) participated.
All the five trade unions had jointly served a three-day strike notice on September 14 to CIL in protest against possible salary payment of September to miners on the basis of the NCW X agreement. The CIL had paid July and August salaries on the basis of the NCW-XI agreement.
Sources said that the CIL management and the trade unions are waiting for the Jabalpur High Court double bench order on the NCW-XI agreement scheduled on October 9. Some coal officers have challenged the agreement in the court.
“If the solution does not come, all 2.62 lakh miners of Coal India, including 34,000 each of BCCL, CCL and 39,000 of ECL would go on strike from October 12,” said the leader Lakhan Lal Mahto.
