More workers joined the strike by Coal India trade unions on the second day of the protest on Friday even as the management is putting pressure to withdraw the stir, trade union leaders claimed.

Five trade unions, including RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), working in Coal India Ltd (CIL) went on a three-day strike from Thursday to protest the decision of the government to start commercial coal mining.

Nathulal Pandey, president of HMS-affiliated Hind Khadan Mazdoor Federation told PTI that "the strike intensified on second day on Friday as some of the workers who due to various reasons could not join the strike have joined the protest today."

D D Ramanandan of CITU-affiliated All India Coal Workers Federation said that so far on Friday there are no reports of any disruptions or strike getting weaker.

He also said that no major incident of violence was reported on Friday due to the ongoing strike.

One of the union leaders alleged that the management of Coal India is exerting pressure on the protesting workforce to withdraw the strike and warned that "the government has decided that the mining operations should be restored to normalcy immediately. It has been decided in the interest of the nation that strict actions will be taken to restore normalcy."

He also said that the management of the different subsidiaries of the PSU has asked its general managers (GMs) and senior officers to be present at coal mines at 5 am on Friday to start the mining operations.

The management has also asked the GMs to talk to the outsourcing agencies to make the manpower available at the first shift.

Tapan Sen, general secretary of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) said, "The strike is total. Though at some places in West Bengal the police is in action and trying to break the unity of the workforce on strike."

S Q Zama, the secretary-general of Indian National Mineworkers' Federation, affiliated to INTUC said that the strike on the second day was as strong as it was on Thursday.

He also admitted that at some mines the management of Coal India was trying to engage outsourced agencies to dig out coal.

"At some places in West Bengal some of the people of Trinamool Congress (TMC) were trying to create problem for the people who were on strike," he alleged.

"In the Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) also the strike was 95 per cent," he said.

Of the 4.5 lakh coal workers on strike, around three lakh are of Coal India, around 50,000 of SCCL and the remaining are contract workers, Zama said.

CIL chairman Pramod Agrawal on Thursday evening also appealed to workers to resume their duties in the interest of the PSU, a Coal India official said, adding that the attendance of workers of CIL was around 20 per cent on the first day of strike.

Unions said that on the first day of the strike, the production of coal had come to a standstill with loss of about 2 million tonnes (MT) of output.

The despatch of coal had also adversely affected, Zama had said.

Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi on Thursday had urged the employees of Coal India to end the ongoing strike and resume work.

"It is estimated that States will lose more than Rs 319 crores as part of revenues from @CoalIndiaHq. A loss of this magnitude is a national loss and I urge employees of Coal PSUs to end the ongoing strike and resume back their work," Joshi had tweeted.