The indefinite strike by the workers’ unions at the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), which had begun on 6 March, has been called off. The strike was threatening to affect the targets of the organisation. The protesting union members have all resumed normal duty starting 20 March and operations are back to normal now, according to a press release.
The management of NMDC, the state-owned iron-ore mining corporation acknowledged the importance of its workforce admitting that workers have been the backbone of the organisation. On the orders of the Federation of the Unions the members resumed their duties fully from 20 March 2025. The end of the strike is a step towards strengthening the relation and trust between the workers and the management. With operations returning to normal, NDMC hopes that its production targets will be met with the cooperation and commitment of the workers.
The workers had been demanding a wage settlement, while the management had called the protest illegal. The workers had been obstinate and had purposefully tried to slow down work even when wage revision-related negotiations were going on.
After 2017, there has been no wage revision, whereas the next one was supposed to happen in 2022. The unions had presented their list of demands in February of 2023. Following discussions, a bilateral subcommittee had presented recommendations in August 2024. The Steel Ministry was to give its confirmation for which NMDC had been following up regularly and also keeping the unions updated. The Ministry had been aware that the strike was adversely affecting production and that the NMDC was already struggling to meet the previous fiscal’s targets with production having dropped by 60 per cent.
