Amid coal shortage, CIL union threatens strike over wages

07 Jul 2022 CW Team

The Akhil Bharatiya Khadan Mazdoor Sangh (ABKMS), one of the leading unions at Coal India (CIL), has warned that workers may strike over delays in finalising salary increases, a move that would complicate efforts to meet the soaring fuel demand.

Talks held July 1 failed to reach any agreement over a pay deal, said Sudhir Ghurde, who represented the union at the meeting.

Workers are seeking a 47% increase in wages after having earlier demanded a 50% hike, while CIL has offered a 3% raise. A group of unions has written to the Union Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi, urging him to intervene to help the sides conclude negotiations.

This comes as the government struggles to meet the coal demand of power producers and other consumers of the fuel, amid the high costs of coal imports, with seaborne prices trading near record highs.

Wages of non-executive workers, which account for 94% of Coal India’s workforce, are revised every five years. The latest agreement is intended to cover salaries from July 2021, and will be applied retroactively once a deal is struck.

The wage talks are happening as rising global costs of food and fuel and a depreciating rupee are stoking inflation and denting government finances.

Also Read:
Adani emerges as lowest bidder in CIL import tender
India seeks WB aid to get abandoned coal mines going again

Infrastructure Transport

12 Mar 2026

Kavach 4.0 Commissioned on Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah

"Kavach version four has been commissioned on 1,452 route km, covering the high density Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah corridors. The rollout included laying 8,570 km of optical fibre, installation of 1,100 telecom towers, deployment of trackside equipment over 6,776 RKm and establishment of 767 station data centres. Trackside implementation has been taken up on 24,427 RKm covering Golden Quadrilateral, Golden Diagonal and High Density Network sections. The programme aims to strengthen signalling and train protection on key routes.Kavach is an indigenously developed automatic train protecti..

Railways Advance Kalyan–Murbad Line And Mumbai Capacity Expansion

"Indian Railways is advancing multiple rail infrastructure projects in Maharashtra, including the sanctioned Kalyan–Murbad new line and sizable investments under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project and the Mumbai–Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project. The Kalyan–Murbad 28 km new line has been sanctioned at Rs 8.36 billion (bn) on a 50:50 cost-sharing basis with the Government of Maharashtra and has been declared a Special Railway Project for land acquisition; proposals covering 214 hectares are at various stages of acquisition. Budgetary outlay for projects falling fully or partly in Maharash..

Parliamentary Panel Flags Funding Gaps in Heavy Industries

"The Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry (Rajya Sabha) presented its 332nd report on the Demands for Grants 2026-27 of the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI). Figures converted from crore and lakh are expressed in million (mn). The Budget Estimates 2026-27 for the Ministry stand at Rs 79,399 mn against a projected requirement of Rs 94,843.2 mn, a shortfall of about 16 per cent, with revenue at Rs 79,370.8 mn and capital compressed to Rs 28.2 mn from Rs 5,020 mn.The committee flagged recurring BE-to-RE compression and declining revised estimate utilisation, and calle..