Visakhapatnam Steel Plant Workers’ Strike on May 20
They charged that instead of stopping privatisation, the coalition government is conspiring to tie up the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant with Arcelor Mittal in Anakapalli district.
Visakhapatnam: Workers of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) will go on strike on May 20 demanding resolution of their pending demands.
While VSP’s permanent workers will strike for two days, contract workers will go on an indefinite strike.
Addressing a press conference in Visakhapatnam on Friday, CITU state general secretary Ch. Narasingha Rao and general secretary R.K.S.V. Kumar said a notice has been served in this regard to the management of RINL (Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited), the corporate entity of VSP, on May 13.
Providing details, the union leaders said on May 13, the RINL management had issued show-cause notices to seven leaders, including U. Ramaswamy, general secretary of the CITU Union, and suspended four for holding a meeting near the blast furnace in the plant premises.
They further said since April 1 this year, 1,213 people have been sent home under VRS. Further, not a single worker, including displaced workers, has been recruited in the last five years.
In their charter of demands, Narasingha Rao and Kumar reiterated their demand that the central and state governments stop privatisation of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant and immediately withdraw the show-cause notices issued to seven workers and suspension of the four workers.
They charged that instead of stopping privatisation, the coalition government is conspiring to tie up the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant with Arcelor Mittal in Anakapalli district.
The union leaders said the Anakapalli district 1,400 crore revival package announced by the union government in March this year has only been used to clear off RINL’s debts. At the same time, 4,000 contract workers have been illegally dismissed from the plant by removing their names from biometrics, thereby denying them entry into the steel plant.
