VISAKHAPATNAM: Workers of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant went on a one-day strike from 6 am on Tuesday demanding wage revision and withdrawal of plans for strategic sale of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the corporate entity of the VSP, and other SAIL units. The steel workers’ union leaders gathered at the plant in the early morning even before the start of the first shift at 5 am.
They took out a rally and staged a sit-in and raised slogans in support of their strike. As many as 14 of the 15 workers unions of the steel plant are participating in the strike. Steel plant unions said the strike received an overwhelming response from workers. There are 11,500 non-executive workers and 16,000 contract workers in the plant. Of them, 85 per cent workers are participating in the strike, union leaders said.
President of the recognised steel plant union J Ayodhya Ram said the workers participated in the strike voluntarily and they did not force anyone to join the strike. He said everyone realised the need to achieve twin objectives of workers. Meanwhile, the RINL management made arrangements by deploying executives and officers in different shifts to ensure that production was not affected.