500,000 Indian Coal Workers on Strike

Mining Weekly reported that over 500,000 coal workers across India began a five-day strike on Tuesday as negotiations between their union and the government to reverse the “denationalisation of the coal sector ” failed.

As quoted in the market news:

Trade union representative said that talks between the unions and government lasted for several hours on Tuesday, with discussions taking place until midnight, but unions said that the government officials had nothing to offer to reverse the “denationalisation of the coal sector”.

The government, in turn, said that the trade unions were “adamant” on their stand.

Indian National Mineworkers’ Federation Secretary General SQ Zama stated:

Negotiations at the secretary level have failed. But we are open for discussions at the political level either with the Prime Minister or the coal Minister

Coal India chairperson Sutirtha Bhattacharya stated:

We did our best to arrive at a solution but the coal secretary has its own limitations and around 350 000 workers of Coal India Limited (CIL) commenced their strike today.

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