RAMANATHAPURAM
Workers of Tamil Nadu Salt Corporation (TNSC) unit in Valinokkam, who launched an indefinite strike on Wednesday protesting the move to hand over the refinery unit, producing iodised double-fortified salt (DFS) to Tata Trusts, decided to resume work from Friday after talks with Collector S. Natarajan here on Thursday.
Though the talks with the Collector and management representatives ‘failed’ to resolve the issue, leaders of the Workers’ Federation, affiliated to the CITU, decided to end the strike ‘for the time being’ after they were assured that the TNSC would hold back its decision to hand over the refinery to Tata Trusts on April 3 and they could discuss the issue with Minister for Industries M.C. Sampath.
A management representative said Tata Trusts, which helped set up the refinery with an aid of ₹4 crore, would be allowed to operate and maintain the refinery only for two years to stabilise production and reduce production cost and suggested that the workers could give it a try.
The Collector and the representative also suggested that after trying for one year with Tata Trusts, the contract could be terminated if the workers were not satisfied with the arrangements but the leaders stood firm in their stand that allowing Tata Trusts to operate the refinery would ultimately lead to privatisation and retrenchment of workers. When the workers were operating the refinery efficiently where was the need for an outsider to come in, they asked.
Pointing that the production was badly affected, the Collector asked the leaders to end the strike and return to work immediately. After ending strike, they could resolve the issues through talks, he suggested.
As all the 1,500-odd workers were on strike, the Corporation suffered a production loss of 700 tonnes per day. Production was hit since Tuesday, when the workers resorted to a road roko and announced indefinite strike on Wednesday.
