KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – The near-month-long industrial action at Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) is jeopardising the generation of about 3 000 MW of thermal power, stoking fears of an energy crisis across several southern Indian provinces.

The Coal Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office have been asked by the provincial government of Tamil Nadu, where NLC was headquartered, to immediately intervene.

The provincial government has argued that, while thermal power plants in the region had, so far, been able to operate with existing stocks, plant load factors would be severely affected if NLC workers, who were on an indefinite strike pressing for a wage hike, do not return to work soon.

About 12 000 workers represented by 12 trade unions declared an indefinite strike in July when their demand for a 24% wage hike was rejected by the NLC management.  The last wage revision agreement between the trade unions and NLC management had been concluded in 2007.

The company maintained that its mining and power generation operations were being carried out by engineers and contract workers who had not joined the strike, but capacity utilisation at the mines, as well as thermal power plants, would suffer if the industrial action continued much longer.

With the workers now planning to picket all NLC establishments, including its head office, fears of disruptions to operations had deepened.

The trade unions hardened their stance and further negotiations were jeopardised when a prominent trade union leader was sacked from the company earlier this month on the grounds of leading a strike by workers last year.

The arrest of 2 000 workers picketing various mines and thermal power plants also aggravated industrial relations with the trade unions terming the management stance as ‘anti-worker’ and prompting the unions to further intensify their protests.

NLC had a combined installed thermal power generation capacity of 3 000 MW, while its mines produced about 20-million tonnes a year of lignite.