The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Coalminers' strike near-total

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 25, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Coalminers' strike near-total

By Our Staff reporter

KHAMMAM, NOV. 24. The coal workers' strike in the Singareni Collieries, sponsored by five revolutionary trade unions, was near-total in nine out of 13 areas. The strike call evoked literally no response in the four areas of the company in Khammam district. The coalmines in Kothagudem, Manguru and Yellandu in Khammam district would make up for 40 per cent of the production loss on account of the strike.

The strike call was given by five revolutionary unions to press their nine demands which included finalisation of the seventh wage board.

A spokesman of the company said work was totally affected in about 25 mines in the Bellampalli, Mandamarri and Srirampur areas.

There was thin attendance in Chennur II mine. The trade unions which sponsored the strike carried out an intensive campaign in these areas. The strike call evoked almost the same response in Karimnagar district as well,barring a few underground mines where some workers attended to duties, he said. The strike was total in all the five mines at Bhoopalpalli in Warangal district. In the Kothagudem area, the opencast mines were working as usual and the attendance of the miners was over 80 per cent. So was the case with the mines at Manuguru and Yellandu. The production of coal in the three areas would be around 40,000 tonnes as against the company's average daily production of 1.1 lakh tones. The spokesman said that the strike was more or less peaceful in all the areas. No untoward incident was reported in the collieries.

Some of the representative unions, however, stayed away from the protest as the Communist Party of India (Maoist)-affiliated SIKASA was one of the unions which gave the call.

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