Tenth National Conference, Thiruvananthapuram: forty years of EEFI

The Electricity Employees Federation of India will not allow the Central and State governments to advance an inch in their privatisation agenda. That was the line adopted by the 10th National Conference, held on 10–12 March 2025 at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

The conference marked forty years of EEFI and the birth centenary of Comrade E. Balanandan, founding President of the federation. More than 350 delegates attended from generation (thermal, hydel, nuclear and wind), transmission and distribution — from NTPC and Power Grid, from state public DISCOMs in 22 states and four Union Territories, and from private utilities. Delegates came from Jammu and Kashmir to Kerala, and from Meghalaya to Maharashtra.

Comrade Tapan Sen, General Secretary of CITU, inaugurated the conference. He spoke on the changing profile of technology and employment relations, and on the strategic role of electricity workers if the Labour Codes are forced through. Comrade Mohan Sharma, General Secretary of AIFEE, greeted the inaugural session.

A mass rally of electricity employees was held on the evening of the first day, with Kerala’s traditional cultural forms lining the route and greetings from workers’ organisations along the path. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan sent a message of support. The public meeting was addressed by Comrade Elamaram Kareem, President, and Comrade Swadesh DevRoye, Working President.

Comrade Mpho Phakedi, General Secretary of the Trade Union International (Energy) and of South Africa’s largest miners’ union, attended the three-day session, as did four energy-sector delegates from Nepal. Leaders of the All India Coal Workers’ Federation and the Petroleum and Gas Workers Federation of India also participated, underlining united action across the three energy federations.

The report to the conference was presented in three parts: the international and national political-economic situation; the energy sector at home and abroad; and EEFI’s organisation and struggles. It took up automation and artificial intelligence, contractualisation, the shift of public power toward private renewables, and the geopolitics of energy under multinational capital. Summaries of Part I and Part III are on this site.

Sixty delegates took part in the discussion. The conference adopted resolutions against privatisation of the power sector; for the Kerala model of public alternatives; for contract workers’ rights; against the corporate-communal nexus; for organising working women; for international solidarity; and for public ownership of renewable energy.

A special resolution committed the federation to two national strike lines: against the Labour Codes, and on electricity-sector issues, with the power-sector strike dated 26 June 2025.

The conference elected a 25-member Office Bearers committee, including three women and one permanent invitee; a 55-member Working Committee; and 70 General Council members. Comrade Elamaram Kareem was re-elected President; Comrade Swadesh DevRoye, Working President; Comrade Sudip Dutta, General Secretary; Comrade S. Rajendran, Treasurer.

Tasks adopted include expansion among non-regular workers and engineers, organisation inside private utilities, a pensioners’ wing, worker-consumer forums in every state, a stronger NCCOEEE, coordination with AICWF and PGWFI, and a permanent Research and Training Centre in Delhi.