Coal workers need strong trade union, says KCR

SCCL owes a lot to coal workers: TRS chief

COAL politics: TRS legislators Etala Rajender and Koppula Eshwar campaigning for their trade union in the elections to the Singareni Collieries Company Limited union in Godavarikhani region on Wednesday.

KOTHAGUDEM: "Coal workers in the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) were in need of a strong trade union which could safeguard their interests and help improve their working conditions," said the TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday.

Addressing a series of public meetings in Manuguru and Kothagudem today, he said that the SCCL owed all its fortune to the hard work put in by the coal miners. But their lives were of no great worth for the management.

Indifferent treatment

He said though the Singareni collieries Company had for long been doing exceptionally well unlike the coal companies in the north, the treatment meted out to Singareni coal workers was no different from others.

He questioned as to why they should be paid on par with the coal workers of the companies where the performance was plagued consistently by problems such as bad industrial relations as well as the influence of mafia dons.

This could be possible only with the representation of a strong trade union both at the area level and the company level. The Telangana Boggughani Karmika Sangham (TBKS) was prepared to shoulder the task, he said.

It could fight the management effectively on issues such as wages, working conditions and amenities.

There was no need for national unions, which were not up to the expectation to represent the company workers.