As many as 36,000 employees including 16,000 permanentemployees of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) today went on strike opposing theUPA government's disinvestment proposals of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited(RINL), the corporate entity of VSP.
According to AITUC leader D Adinarayana, all the employees'associations including CITU and INTUC are opposing the government's move todisinvest 10 per cent stake in the RINL.
"Today it may be just 10 per cent disinvestment. Laterthe government may go for higher stake dilution and slowly may sell majorityshare. Employees' interests will be affected if the disinvestment is allowed tocontinue," Adinarayana told PTI.
Department of Disinvestment recently decided to put on holdthe Rs 2,500-crore Initial Public Offer (IPO) based on the bankers' advice withrespect to gloomy market conditions.
The IPO was supposed hit the market by July-end. The firstphase of roadshows for the IPO was conducted last month in London, Hong Kongand Singapore.
The central government wanted to offload 10 percent of itsequity in RINL to achieve its total target of Rs 30,000 crore during currentfiscal from disinvestment in profit-making public sector units.
The union leader said they are sending letters to PrimeMinister and other ministers to reconsider their decision on disinvestmentplans.
When contacted, a senior official of the VSP said themanagement has taken care to see that all critical functions will go onsmoothly. "There will be some impact on the production. We have made somestop gap arrangements.
Production loss can be quantified at later stage," theofficial said.
VSP chairman and managing director A P Chowdhary earlierappealed to the unions to desist from the strike as it would have a cumulativeeffect on production. However, the employees' associations rejected the appeal.