Data showing loss a ploy to privatise SSP, claim workers

The workers launched a 24-hour strike from 6 am on Friday after the Central government on Thursday invited bids to privatise three plants belonging to the Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), including the one in Salem.

The agitating workers also staged a demonstration in front of the plant’s entrance and raised slogans against the BJP government. There are around 2,000 direct and 3,000 indirect employees in the plant, spread over an area of 4,000 acres and functional since 1981.

The Central government has been reportedly making moves to privatise the plant over the last few years, citing it to be a loss-making unit.

The plant workers, however, threatened to intensify their agitation if their demand to drop the privatisation issue is not addressed. “The government has been intending to sell the plant worth about Rs 15,000 crore for a lesser price. All political parties should support our struggle to save the plant. The State government should, in fact, bring a special calling attention motion in the Assembly against the proposal. The Chief Minister should also take earnest efforts to prevent privatisation of the plant located in his home district,” said Suresh, general secretaryof CITU.

The agitators, blocking the entrance gate, even prevented a few workers from entering the plant. The strike on Friday resulted in production loss of over 1,000 tonnes, sources said.

Meanwhile, CITU has condemned the move to privatise all the three special steel plants under SAIL, namely the Salem Steel Plant (SSP), the Alloy Steels Plant (ASP) at Durgapur in West Bengal and Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Plant (VISL) at Bhadravati in Karnataka.

Despite serious financial stress, the union stated that ASP manufactures alloy steel of special quality for catering to the need of the defence sector and precision engineering work, while Salem Steel Plant is used to produce stainless steel of higher quality, as is the Bhadravati plant. “All of them have the potential for a viable turnaround with adequate capital,” CITU general secretary Tapan Sen said.

He pointed out that the workers in Durgapur plant were also holding a protest and road blockade over the move to invite EOI by SAIL. “CITU demands upon the government to refrain from the retrograde move of privatisation and calls upon the working class to unitedly resist such move,”Tapan said.