The Human Rights Forum (HRF) stands in solidarity with the ongoing agitation by contract workers of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. Contract workers at the VSP have been on an indefinite strike for the past 10 days for realisation of their legitimate rights in the face of sustained threats by the management.
HRF demands that the 3,000 contract workers who have been recently terminated under the government’s retrograde privatisation policies be reinstated immediately. The management must abandon attempts to terminate a further 1800 contract workers.
We condemn the management’s use of police to intimidate workers instead of engaging in dialogue and seeking democratic resolution of issues raised by them. Resorting to fear tactics instead of negotiation, particularly when production at the plant is being affected, is unacceptable. Contract workers are the backbone of daily operations at the plant but they continue to be denied basic rights, job security and dignity at the workplace. Their persistent demands for regularisation and fair wages are met not with dialogue, but intimidation and removal.
It is common knowledge that the Central government is orchestrating a systematic conspiracy to privatise the steel plant by sanitising its financials – issuing a Rs 11,440 crore package, waiving GST and other dues, and making the plant attractive for private players. We condemn this attempt to hand over a precious industrial asset – built on the sacrifice of 32 lives and the voluntary land donation by people of 69 villages – to corporate interests on a platter.
In the 40-year history of the VSP, we have not witnessed such intimidation tactics and huge police deployment. The suspension of protesting workers and the issuance of show-cause notices, we believe, are in direct violation of the Industrial Disputes Act of 1948. These actions are nothing but implementation of the regressive new labour codes that the government is actively pushing.
HRF calls for immediate stoppage of punitive actions by the management and a democratic and peaceful resolution of grievances of employees and contract workers at the VSP. All attempts to privatise the Steel Plant must be halted.
KV Jagannadha Rao – HRF AP State president
VS Krishna – HRF AP&TG Coordination Committee member
29-5-2025,
Visakhapatnam.