Report by Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) correspondent
EDF (Électricité de France, literally Electricity of France) is one of Europe’s most important energy companies. In 2009, EDF was the world’s largest producer of electricity. EDF specialises in electricity, from engineering to distribution. It is a fully integrated power company, including electricity generation and distribution, power plant design, construction, energy trading and transport.
The unions of EDF have been demanding the renationalization of EDF, arguing that freeing the company from obligations to private investors would stabilize it and serve national priorities.
Presently, the French government owns 80% of EDF. It had to heed the workers, realizing their “power”, and announced its decision to renationalize the power company on 6 July 2022 to secure “full control of our energy system and its performance.”
In the past few months, the electricity workers in various states in India have thwarted the governments’ attempts to privatize parts of the electricity sector in the interests of various monopoly corporates.
The experience in our and other countries has repeatedly shown that privatised power sector is not in the interest of people and of the nation. The opposition of Indian power workers to the electricity privatisation deserves support of workers of all other sectors and consumers.