Employees’ unions protest against IPCL disinvestment

VADODARA, Aug 1: Members of all the three non-supervisory employees' unions of the Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited (IPCL) have ...

VADODARA, Aug 1: Members of all the three non-supervisory employees’ unions of the Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited (IPCL) have begun an agitation against proposed disinvestment of the company and threatened to intensify the stir if the management failed to stall the process immediately.

Representatives of the unions — namely, IPCL Employees Union, the Petrochemicals Karamchari Union and the IPCL Employees Association — who have now formed the IPCL Disinvestment Virodh Samiti, as a part of the agitation, staged a dharna in front of the Mahatama Gandhi Nagar Gruha here, displayed banners and placards and shouted slogans against the management on Sunday.

Talking to Express Newsline Samiti leaders Bhupendra Patel, Satyesh Prasad, Narendra Brahmbatt and Jignesh Majmudar said that the disinvestment of about 20 per cent more of the company was yet another step by the management, governed by the Government of India, to privatise the IPCL.

The first step was to give 16 per cent share to the financial institutes and 20 per cent in form of public issue in early 1990s, the leaders claimed, specifying that 20 per cent more disinvestment would only mean more profits for private investors, instead of the government, ruining the prospects of the company.

Stating that the disinvestment process had already begun following the recommendations of IPCL global advisor W D Reid, the leaders said that the move would be protested by the IPCL employees. “The leaders of the three unions would decide the further line of action in a day or two. Sunday’s protest was only a token stir”, Prasad said.

Other leaders also rapped the “dictator-like” approach of the management, which according to them, turned down their repeated requests to discuss the issue.