04-05-2025
Trade union leaders call for a united strike on May 20
Visakhapatnam: Listing several demands, all trade union leaders issued a notice to the management of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) informing that they are going on a strike on May 20.
They emphasised that they are going on a strike to bring in long pending issues of the plant to the management's notice, appeal to look into them and resolve them at the earliest.
Withdrawing strategic sale of the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited, allotting captive mines to the plant and merging RINL with SAIL along with ensuring raw materials before starting blast furnace-3 topped the demand list.
The other demands include reinstating contract workers who were removed from the service, implementing new wages, paying complete salary every month, restoring HRA with retrospective effect, restoring welfare measures which were stopped by the management and providing employment for displaced family members.
Union leaders of AITUC, INTUC, CITU, YSRTUC, VSEU, among other units mentioned that the demand is also to stop privatisation of public sector undertakings, scrap National Monetization Pipeline (NMP), amend existing law on mining of minerals and metals and ensure 50 percent share of profit from mines, including coal mines for upliftment of local communities, especially Adivasis and farmers.
In addition, appeal to stop unilateral decisions on workers' or work-related issues, no termination of employment of contract workers as being done in various establishments including RINL, restoration of old pension scheme and scrapping of NPS and UPS, removal of all ceilings on payment and eligibility of bonus, PF and gratuity forms a part of the demand list.
The strike will continue from 6 am on May 20 to 6 am on May 21.
