SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Sept 25: Coal India Limited (CIL) has once again excluded the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), a Congress-affiliated trade union, from the Standardization Committee meeting scheduled for September 29 in Kolkata.
The meeting will address the annual bonus for 2.30 lakh coal workers. CIL’s notification lists four invited national trade unions: Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), and Central Industrial Trade Union (CITU).
INTUC leaders decry exclusion
The fifth recognized national trade union, the Congress-affiliated Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), with a membership exceeding 50,000, has been excluded from the meeting. Federation leaders claim that CIL’s decision to ignore INTUC is directed by the BJP.
INTUC leaders, including Rashtriya Khan Mazdoor Federation senior vice-presidents AK Jha and Brajendra Prasad Singh, have condemned CIL’s action as a conspiracy and politically motivated. They argue that no court has ruled against their participation in CIL meetings concerning miners’ issues, and view the exclusion as a continued effort to suppress miners’ demands.
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“For the last 11 years, CIL management has been trying to crush the demands of miners by denying berth to INTUC. It is nothing but injustice to miners and anti-nation action,” said AK Jha and Brajendra Prasad Singh.
Legal and political disputes
The INTUC leaders pointed out that the Supreme Court had previously allowed their participation in the National Coal Wage Agreement (NCWA XI) under president Jaymangal Singh alias Anup Singh (MLA) for the benefit of miners. Despite this, CIL has allegedly violated norms by excluding them.
The INTUC leaders also criticized the involvement of leaders from BJP-affiliated trade unions in traditionally leftist trade union spaces, calling it an unprecedented political mix in the coal industry.
“Combination of Left and Right trade unions had never been witnessed in past in coal industry,” they said.
Reason for exclusion
A senior officer from CIL’s BCCL Dhanbad office stated that INTUC was not invited due to ongoing factional disputes within the union, which are currently pending in various courts. This legal entanglement has been cited as the reason for their exclusion from the meeting.
