All unions of the workers of the Neyveli Lignite Corporation have decided to jointly go on an indefinite strike in protest against the recommendation of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) to the government on June 21, to disinvest 5% of the NLC shares.
All unions of the workers of the Neyveli Lignite Corporation have decided to jointly go on an indefinite strike in protest against the recommendation of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) to the government on June 21, to disinvest 5% of the NLC shares.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) recommended to the government on June 21, to disinvest 5% of the shares of Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC). All the Unions of workers of the NLC have decided to jointly go on an indefinite strike in protest against this recommendation
It may be recalled that twice before, in 2002 and 2006, the Central Government of the day had to backtrack on its proposal to disinvest in the NLC, following mass opposition from workers unions. This powerful opposition has also forced the main political parties in Tamilnadu, the DMK and the AIADMK to oppose privatization of NLC.
The unions have pointed out that NLC is a profit making undertaking. From 1977, it has been making profits, and in the past two years, it has given dividends of nearly 500 crores each year. Compared to this, what the government expects to earn from the sale of 5% of its shares is expected to be Rs 466 crores. This clearly shows that the government is following a long term strategy of privatizing the NLC.
The unions have warned that once the government sells 5% of its shares, this will only be the beginning. “If we don’t oppose right now, step by step it will go upto 43%, we will lose our allowance, rights, jobs and everything. We do not want this to happen”, said the leader of one of the main unions in the NLC.
The NLC workers unions have pointed out that their opposition to privatization was also based on the knowledge that as a government company, NLC was able to provide affordable power to consumers leveraging advantages of coal blocks allocated by the government and this would change once it went into private hands, whose main concern would be ensuring maximum profits for themselves.
There are over 17,500 workers employed by the NLC, and an indefinite strike in the NLC will further accentuate the already terrible power situation in Tamilnadu.