Coal India Employees Threaten To Go On A 5-day Strike

The workers of Coal India Ltd (CIL), a public sector undertaking, have threatened to go on a five-day strike from January 6 next year against the government’s move to sell off some stakes in the company. All the five trade unions of CIL, with a total of 3,50,000 workers, have served a notice in this regard to the management.

"The government has initiated the process to denationalise coal with its recent Bill. We demand that the government immediately stop this process. Until then, this protest will go on," said Ramendra Kumar, secretary, Indian Mine Workers' Federation. "We have decided to extend our support to the strike. We have also called for a separate strike on January 13," said Jibon Roy, general secretary, All India Coal Workers Federation.

The strike call has raised concerns about the supply of coal from CIL, which is already under pressure to meet the increasing demand. Coal India often lags behind its output targets due to strikes and various other bureaucratic hurdles.

The government plans to sell some of its stake in Coal India to achieve its annual divestment target of $9.5 billion.