Guntur: The YSR Trade Union Congress categorically rejected the privatisation of the steel plant and committed to a fierce struggle alongside workers and public unions to protect their livelihoods, said YSRTUC president Poonuru Gautham Reddy. Addressing the media at the YSRCP central office in Tadepalli, he declared that the previous YSRCP government’s staunch opposition had stalled privatisation for five years, but the coalition government’s inaction has worsened workers’ plight.
He demanded Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, and Minister Lokesh honour their election promises to save the plant, accusing them of indifference as the NDA accelerated privatisation of 32 departments by September 9, 2025. The coalition’s policies have crippled the plant, employing 20,000 workers: 1,150 have been removed via Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS), with notices for 1,000 more, totalling 8,000-9,000 layoffs across all categories in a year.
Salaries remain unpaid since September 2024, benefits like leave encashment, incentives, LTC, and LLTC have been scrapped, and electricity rates in plant quarters have surged from 49 paise to Rs 8 per unit, displacing workers. He condemned dismantling of a 1,300-day protest tent and erecting a police post to suppress dissent, contrasting this with YSRCP’s support under former Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who engaged workers directly, passed an Assembly resolution against privatisation, wrote to the Centre to convert loans into equity, and refrained from filing cases against protesters.
