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Balco workers vow to maintain strike

Striking employees at the newly privatised Balco aluminium plant said on Friday they were determined not to go back to work until the Union government returned the company to state control.

The sale is the government's first big privatisation in a decade of economic reforms and a test of its plans to accelerate divestment in state-run companies.

"None of our workers is ready to go back to work", Rajendra Mishra, general secretary of the Balco Workers Union, said. "We will not resume duties until the government rescinds the privatisation order."

The strike by more than 4,000 workers began last Saturday in protest against the government's sale of its controlling stake in Bharat Aluminium Co Ltd to metals firm Sterlite Industries.

Balco runs a 200,000-tonne-per-annum alumina plant, a 100,000-tonne aluminium smelter and a 40,000-tonne hot and cold rolling mill at the plant.

The plant in Korba in the newly created state of Chhattisgarh produces 15 per cent of India's aluminium output.

S C Krishnan, Balco's new managing director, has said employees should not fear layoffs and that the privatisation would turn the plant into a world-class facility.

Management has been trying to persuade employees to return to work and prevent production losses. Financial losses from the strike have been estimated at Rs 15-20 million.

Agreed to maintain plant

The union agreed on Thursday to a management appeal to maintain the smelter and other essential services but without accepting any pay for their work, police said.

Balco management had said earlier the situation at the Korba plant was becoming serious with a shortage of workers hurting maintenance.

The Chhattisgarh state assembly, meanwhile, was adjourned until March 13 following scenes of uproar over the privatisation with ruling Congress members demanded the scrapping of the sale.

Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi, who backs the striking employees, has demanded that Balco be returned to state hands.

Police said that the district administration was complying with a Supreme Court order earlier in the week to protect employees wishing to report for work.

"No law and order problem has arisen," Chhattisgarh Legislative Affairs Minister Ravindra Choubey said.

The sale has also kicked up a political storm at the federal level with opposition lawmakers accusing the government of selling the cash-rich firm too cheaply.

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