A tense situation prevailed near the Administrative Office Building of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), as hundreds of workers gathered to protest against the non-implementation of the wage revision agreement, reached in the past, for workers of the VSP, on Tuesday morning.
The workers squatted on the road and prevented the movement of vehicles into the administration building. The police and the CISF personnel had a tough time in preventing them from entering the building. The leaders of various trade unions protested against the Centre for trying to discriminate the VSP workers from their counterparts in other steel plants, which were under the purview of SAIL (Steel Authority of India Limited).
The union leaders alleged that it was a ploy of the Centre to demoralise the workers of RINL-VSP by not implementing the revised wages. There was no recruitment in the plant to fill the vacancies on retirement of employees. They also alleged that ignoring the 820-day relay hunger strike by workers against the decision on strategic sale of VSP, the Centre was trying to link wage revision of workers with privatisation of the plant.
The union leaders said they would continue to oppose the sale of the VSP till the end. They recalled that even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the workers had made untiring efforts to keep the plant running. They said that they would continue to fight for their rights, even as they continue their protest against privatisation. Some of the union leaders alleged that the VSP management was deceiving the workers by dodging the wage revision every time they went for direct action.
The workers relented after a representative of the management told them that the CMD and Directors were away from the city and they had agreed to conduct a meeting with leaders of all trade unions on the wage revision issue by May-end.
