All trade unions of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) issued a strike notice to the CMD of RINL-VSP on Tuesday, threatening to go on a one-day strike on or after January 31, if their demands were not met by then.
The main demands include implementation of new wages as per SAIL, payment of adhoc arrears and simultaneous wage increase for all contract workers. All 16 unions, including INTUC, AITUC, BMS, CITU, HMS, YSRTUC, TNTUC, CFTUI, DVRSEU, TNTUC, AICTU, VSEU, JMS, VSMS and DITU, were signatories to the strike notice.
‘Adamant attitude’
The union leaders met CMD Atul Bhat in the meeting hall and handed him over the strike notice. Union leaders J. Ayodhya Ram, Gandham Venkata Rao and D. Adinarayana alleged that the management was not evincing interest in implementing the revised wages for the employees.
They said that the additional expenditure on wages was only ₹15 crore and wondered whether the management was not in a position to pay even that amount. They alleged that it reflected the adamant attitude of the Centre and management. They advised the CMD not to show the ₹100 crore loss due to the strike as a cause to sell the plant. It has been a tradition since long to implement the wages for employees of RINL-VSP in accordance with those adopted by the managements of SAIL plants. They demanded that the management change its attitude and implement the new wages.
Representatives of various trade unions K. Satyanarayana Rao, Y. Mastanappa, Dommeti Appa Rao, Kommineni Srinivas, D. Suresh Babu, Karanam Satya Rao, DV Ramana Reddy, V. Rammohan Kumar, Ch. Sanyasi Rao, V. Ram Kumar, Varasala Srinivas, T. Jagadish, B. David and K. Parandamayya were among those who were present.
