Sudden tool down; a severe blow to rich work culture of BSP
Bhilai, Apr 24:
The rich work-culture of Bhilai Steel Plant suffered a major setback for the second time this month when a large number of young employees launched a surprise tool down strike on the intervening night of Saturday. The agitation which began from Universal Rail Mill had spread across the plant. Production at most of the mills was affected due to this unprecedented strike. The employees are highly aggrieved with the delay in finalisation of wage revision. The failure of NJCS talks on April 23 triggered this agitation. However, delay in revision of wages has been a tradition for SAIL. Wages of employees in SAIL are revised every five years through collective bargaining at National Joint Committee for Steel (NJCS). If we go through the history of NJCS, the revision of wages was delayed several times due to stretched deliberations between the management and the trade unions. But the employees of Bhilai Steel Plant always maintained their calm and ensured the high standards of work culture by working with dedication and commitment to maintain the production and productivity of SAIL’s flagship unit.
On condition of anonymity, a senior trade union leader stated that the denizens must abide by the laws in a democracy. The law has provisions of strike. If the employees are aggrieved with some issue, they must formally serve the notice of strike and move ahead for that after the permissible time period. If they go for a lawful agitation, they will get protection from the existing statutes. On the other hand, unlawful agitations can make them victims of disciplinary action on the part of management. The joint trade unions have already served the notice of strike for May 06 and they are abiding by the laws in their struggle. But some overenthusiastic young employees are not willing to understand the ground reality and the consequences of unlawful acts.
It needs to be mentioned here that earlier on April 03, the employees of various factories of Bhilai Steel Plant had suddenly gone on tool down strike. At that time, the top management officials had anyhow normalised the situation through talks. The same episode reoccurred on the intervening night of Saturday. At around 23:00 hrs, the employees of Universal Rail Mill stopped working and brought the production to standstill. Till Saturday morning, the employees of Wire Rod Mill, Merchant Mill, Blast Furnace 8 and BRM and Power and Blowing Station also stopped work and staged tool down strike. They are demanding immediate finalisation of wage revision as per the demands of trade unions, compassionate appointment for the dependents of the employees / executives those who died due to Covid 19, etc. Production remained affected in various factories of Bhilai Steel Plant till filing of this report. The top brass of Bhilai Steel Plant was making efforts to dilute the tension through talks.
