The Trade Union Centre of India’s Kerala unit has opposed the Union Government’s decision to disinvest one tenth of its stake in the public-sector Cochin Shipyard Ltd.

Charles George, State secretary of TUCI, said the move would help multinational companies take control of the profit-making CSL. He pointed out that over the past decade, the CSL’s turnover had increased five-fold while its profit had gone up from ₹94 crore to ₹235 crore a year.

George said the disinvestment was purported to find money for the expansion and modernisation of the CSL. But the history of disinvestment since 1991, when the new economic policies, were put into practice, showed that none of the public-sector companies had benefited from such disinvestment.

He also alleged that the Modi Government was going ahead with disinvestment in the public sector companies at a faster pace than that of the previous Manmohan Singh government. The TUCI would take the initiative to put up a resistance by trade unions to the CSL disinvestment move.