An aerial view of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant.
| Photo Credit: K.R. Deepak
Indicating a rift between the trade unions, leaders of ‘Akhila Paksha Karmika Sanghalu’ (all-party trade unions), a group of 17 workers’ unions of the RINL-Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), on December 25 (Monday), alleged that three unions, AITUC, INTUC and CITU appeared to have supported RINL’s MoU with Jindal on restarting Blast Furnace-3, thus paving the way for privatisation of the plant.
“The recent actions and activities of the three main trade unions (AITUC, INTUC & CITU) indicate that they supported the MoU between RINL-VSP and Jindal. While all the workers have been fighting against the privatisation of the steel plant for more than 1,000 days since the announcement of the disinvestment proposal by the Union Government, these three unions appeared to have joined hands with the management, organising eyewash protests,” the all-party trade union said in a release on Monday.
“We appeal to the workers to participate in a dharna at the main gate of the steel plant on December 27 from 8 a.m. against the MoU with Jindal,” the workers said.