Coal India strike said to shut off half of output, shipments - Livemint

The impasse will last for the planned five days as issues haven’t been addressed, said S.Q. Zama, general secretary at the Indian National Mineworkers Federation. Photo: PTI

New Delhi/Mumbai: A strike by coal miners in India, the biggest walkout in four decades, shut down about half of monopoly Coal India Ltd ’s production and dispatches on Tuesday, said two company officials, who asked not to be identified.

The strike entered its second day after talks between coal secretary Anil Swarup and the unions in New Delhi failed. The unions are protesting Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’s plan to end the state’s monopoly. The impasse will last for the planned five days as issues haven’t been addressed, said S.Q. Zama, general secretary at the Indian National Mineworkers Federation.

“If this strike continues beyond a couple of days, the situation with respect to coal stock would become critical,” said Debasish Mishra, a senior director at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt. Ltd’s energy practice in Mumbai. ’’So it’s important to a find a resolution sooner.’’

Of the 100 power plants that run on local coal, 42 had supplies of less than seven days as of 1 January, according to the power ministry’s Central Electricity Authority. Twenty of these plants had less than four days of stock.

Modi’s government in October signed an executive order that included a provision to allow the government to end a government monopoly on the mining and selling of coal. While analysts consider the move crucial to boosting coal output, unions have said it may lead to job losses.

Vijay Sagar, a spokesman for Coal India, didn’t immediately provide information on production and shipments. Hundreds of union members protested outside Coal India’s Kolkata office denouncing the privatization plans.

“The strike is on,” R. Mohan Das, personnel director at state-run Coal India, the world’s biggest miner of the fuel, said on Tuesday. All workers had walked out at some mines, while others were partially closed, he said.

Regular blackouts

Parts of India already suffer from regular blackouts as Coal India, which accounts for 80% of the nation’s supply, has failed to meet production targets. The outages can last as long as 10 hours a day, especially during the summer, when both domestic and industrial demand peak.

The five-day strike at the nation’s biggest employer after Indian railways is likely to be the largest industrial action since a railways workers’ strike in 1974. That 20-day shutdown crippled supplies of food grains, cement and petroleum. It ended after the then government took on the unions, sending several union leaders to jail.

Any use of force against coal miners would lead to “permanent damage to hitherto cordial and harmonious industrial relations, peace and tranquility in the coal mining areas,” the Indian Nation Trade Union Congress said in a statement on Tuesday. Bloomberg