DISINVESTMENT IN COAL INDIA: STAGE SET FOR LONG LASTING RESISTANCE - Jibon Roy

Coal Workers have taken the resistance to disinvestment to a different height, which probably no public sector enterprise could yet reach other than NALCO and NLC. Coal workers have demonstrated a deep sense of maturity through the current struggle. Any experienced worker of a labour intensive industry knows that this is a height which could be achieved only because the miners were capable to consolidate their concern and anxieties into a patriotic consciousness and pride.

The Coal miners as a whole could effectively puncture all the maneuvering and deceptive game by Coal India management to make the workers a party in their privatization bid of the coal industry. Only 8% of the employees’ portion of share on offer has got subscribed, that too mostly by the officers. Management could fetch negligible amount from the coal workers in the disinvestment exercise.

Chairman, Coal India Ltd. went out of the way to push through the game of phased – sell-out of the company, he heads as an employee. He lavishly spent the Company’s resources which are not owned by him. Yet after getting a rebuff from the workers, he accused the trade unions, CITU in particular. He has got reasons to express his frustrations for his failure to make the workers a party to the crime being perpetuated in the public sector company, because despite CIL’s Chairman’s partial success to rope in some of the leaders, workers, en-masse, belonging to all the unions stoutly refused to become a party to the crime of phased sell-out of the company in the name of disinvestment. Their anti-privatization consciousness got crystallized into firm resolve. All India Coal Workers’ Federation & CITU salutes the coal miners and takes pride for being a part of the brave workforce.

The Coal India Management coerced the coal workers through officers to buy the shares, induced media through fabulous advertisement for confusing the workers and their family members and finally employed state machineries to terrorize them. But all these attempts went in vain. Workers have opposed privatization through participating in strike on 5th May and again on 18th. October, protested IPO through holding demonstration and dharnas everywhere before the pitheads during the period when IPO had been kept open. But the resistance reached the epic level when workers refused either to open Demat Accounts or to submit themselves to the deceptive game of management.

The author, on behalf of the All India Coal Workers Federation bows his head before the united desire of coal workers and assures that it would go by the workers, to carry on the struggle against this draconian move to a further height.

The media has unleashed a campaign to malign the trade unions for the workers’ refusal to become a party to the disinvestment game. They argued that workers’ refusal to buy shares has benefited the foreign institutional investors to corner more share. What can be more unscrupulous than such deceptive & confusing postures. They should know, whatever disinvestment of PSU shares have taken place till date since 1991, not to speak of Coal India alone, 99% have gone to FIIs and other institutional investors & corporate bodies, both domestic and foreign, and very little has gone to workers or in that matter retail investors. Coal workers’ non-participation in purchase of company’s share has not changed the situation in the least. The whole disinvestment process is designed to benefit private corporates, both domestic & foreign speculators, besides warming up the stock market at PSU’s cost.

If the overall scenario is taken into consideration CIL is almost privatized. The current disinvestment process has set the process for foreign and private take over of CIL. Out of the reserved allotment for Qualified Institutional Buyer which stands for 50% of the total floated share, according to indication, will go to foreign institutional investors. In the domestic raising 60% of the total Coal India production is carried through out sourcing. Further, 207 proven coal blocks representing 39 million ton reserves are allotted to private. Now, current process will cut away 10% straight.

If this has been the situation and the Government decides to destroy the most traditional and the core industry of the country, it is the birth right of coal workers to come forward to the defense of the mining and the miners. There is no reason to be carried away by the media campaign that as if the floating of IPO has brought about a new liberation in the horizon of Indian Republic.

It is also being highlighted that the total subscription has crossed Rs. 15512 Crores. Those who are aware about the trend of share movement in high chip companies they would vouch that the subscription rate has been moderate in view of the fact that the ownership of ‘Black Diamond’ and the land are being taken to the international bidding. Whatever may be the bidding CIL is not going to fetch beyond its face value.

The consensus and firmness of resolve of the coal miners reflected in the current phase of disinvestment have its foundation in three basic factors. Firstly, the Coal workers are having their experience to compare the regimes between Public and Private. Secondly, unlike other engineering based industries coal workers have no other identity, than the identity of being the coal workers which has been coupled with the coal cities. Thirdly, when the coal workers reminisce the past they see a horrendous life which is identified with (i) slaughter mining and (ii) slaughtering of miners.

Let us hope that all of us would draw appropriate lesson from the experience and join themselves into an united preparation to block the next round of disinvestment which is likely to begin the moment the dust of the first round is settled. The coal workers struggled hard. Their spirit should galvanize the future.

Long live Coal WorkersLong live the pride of being the Coal WorkersLong Live Trade Union Unity

Source: www.citucentre.org