RAMANATHAPURAM
A day after staging a road roko and courting arrest against the move to hand over the refinery unit, producing iodised double-fortified salt (DFS) to Tata Trusts, workers of Tamil Nadu Salt Corporation (TNSC) launched an indefinite strike on Wednesday.
The workers, who had been on the warpath with the management since the Corporation invited tenders for operation and maintenance of the refinery unit about six months ago, stepped up the agitation on Tuesday, blocking East Coast Road near the plant at Valinokkam and courted arrest.
The workers launched the strike pressing for a charter of demands, which included permission for them to run the refinery, infusion of additional funds by the government and immediate steps to collect outstanding dues of more than ₹7 crore.
“The strike is total and the entire production operation has come to a standstill,” said K. Pachammal, president of Workers’ Federation, affiliated to the CITU. All the 1,500-odd workers were on strike, he said.
Pointing that the Corporation had finalised the tender in favour of Tata Trusts, he said the workers apprehended that it would lead to privatisation of the plant and retrenchment of workers. They were forced to go on strike as Managing Director Har Sahay Meena failed to turn up for talks on March 19, he said.
As this was the peak season, the government should call the union leaders for talks immediately and resolve the issue, he said.
Tata Trusts, which helped establish the ₹ 5.65-crore refinery with an aid of ₹4 crore, clarified that it offered to operate and maintain the refinery to reduce production cost and improve marketing. It was stepping in only to help the Corporation, which was in deep financial crunch, it said.
P.K. Dillikumar, General Manager, TNSC, said salt production was hit in view of the strike. They were managing only pumping operations with the help of regular staff and production had come to a halt. The production loss was 1,400 tonnes in the last two days, he said.
A peace committee was being formed at the instance of Minister for Industries M.C. Sampath to hold talks with the workers and resolve the issue, he added.
