The BMS was among the central unions that led 3.6-lakh workers of Coal India Ltd. (CIL) on a five-day strike beginning Tuesday. Earlier in November, the BMS stayed away from a strike called on November 24 by other central trade unions to oppose the coal ordinance.
“Four months ago, we had asked Coal Minister Piyush Goyal to talk to trade unions prior to passing Bills, but he did not. This government is passing ordinance after ordinance. Yesterday [Monday], the Cabinet cleared the ordinance to the Mines and Minerals Act but what is the emergency just before the Budget session?” BMS vice-president B.K. Rai told The Hindu from Nagpur before he was scheduled to fly to Delhi on Tuesday night. “Even we know how much electricity the coal mines ordinance will lead to generate. The government is telling lies to rule the country.”
All central unions skipped a consultation meeting called by the Coal Ministry on January 3 saying the government had responded too late.
“They wanted us to meet only the Secretary and Minister Goyal was not going to be present,” said Dr. Rai.
At the BMS office at Duttopant Thengadi Bhawan, BMS general secretary Virjesh Upadhyay tracked the progress of the strike, and said collieries in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand and other CIL mines observed the strike and only in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress cadre had not backed it.
The strike will lead to a loss of Rs. 150 crore a day besides halting production at power plants which usually stock coal for three or four days at the most.
“The government says it had to import 110 million tonnes of coal in 2013-14, but 99 million tonnes of this was for private power plants and steel plants which were designed to operate on this category of imported coal,” said Mr. Upadhyay of the BMS.
A meeting between the Coal Minister and the central unions is scheduled for Wednesday.
“Workers have not taken kindly to the November 24 strike being withdrawn and that is why we have called for this strike in January,” said MP Tapan Sen, General Secretary, CITU.
