The workers’ unions at the Neyveli Lignite Corporation plan to escalate their protest State-wide on Monday with the support of trade unions. Over 25,000 workers are on an indefinite strike since Thursday protesting the Union Governments plan to divest a 5 per cent stake in the Central Public Sector Unit which has operations in lignite mining and power generation.
G. Kuppuswamy, President, CITU-NLC, said workers’ participation is near total and mining has come to a full stop. However, power generation at the facility which has over 2,490 MW of capacity is being sustained with skeletal staff. The engineers and executives who are in sympathy with the workers have not participated in the strike. The workers will continue to seek the support of the executive cadre.
On Monday, central trade unions and other political party-led unions will organise demonstrations across the State, he said. The Government holds 93 per cent of the equity in NLC. The decision to divest a portion of the stake is in line with a SEBI mandate that at least 10 per cent of the stake in government-owned units should be with the public. However, the workers are against any dilution of stake. Over 20 unions have come together in this protest.