Resentment is brewing among the coal workers of Singareni Collieries Company Limited following the abrupt calling off of the indefinite strike called by the five National trade unions without any assurance from the Singareni management on the revival of the long-pending dependent employment scheme (DES). Though, the national trade unions took up the sentimental issue of coal miners and went on strike with an eye on the elections for the recognised trade union of Singareni, it backfired on them as there was no response to the strike. Since the introduction of industrial reforms in the Singareni in 1998, the coal miners were distancing themselves from the strike. Except for sakala janula samme (all peoples strike) for 35 days in 2011 for the cause of Telangana state, there were no strikes till now.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao announced revival of dependent employment scheme in October 2016 as it was the promise made during the electioneering. The management also issued circular and started collecting applications from January from miners’ children. However, when an unemployed youth approached the High Court, the court stated that the recruitment process was unconstitutional. When the management approached the Supreme Court, there also it was opposed.
During this period, the national trade unions viz AITUC, INTUC, CITU, HMS and BMS served the strike notice to the Singareni management on March 30. stating that they would go on indefinite strike demanding revival of DES. Surprisingly, there was partial response to the strike call as the recognized trade union of Singareni the Telangana Bhoggu Ghani Karmika Sangham (TGBKS), affiliated to TRS, had abstained from strike and attended to their duties.
Alleging that the management and TGBKS had suppressed the strike by forcing the miners to work, the national trade union leaders say that they had only temporarily suspended strike and would continue their crusade to achieve the DES by approaching the Central Tribunal as the labour department issued failure report of the talks.
TGBKS president Kenjerla Mallaiah said that the coal miners have reposed faith on the TRS government and foiled the strike call. He said that the coal miners are very confident of revival of DES only with Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao. An official said that the employees realized that the strike would not serve purpose following the court intervention and attended to their duties.
