26 April 2004 10:20
Hunger-strike mine owners in southern Russia face prosecution
[Presenter] The local authorities in Khakassia have decided to allocate R1m to pay off wage arrears owed to miners at
the Yeniseyskaya pit, who are now 10 days into a hunger-strike. The cash payments should start tonight. The authorities
are also promising that those to blame will be punished. Criminal proceedings have been launched against the mine
owners. Mikhail Akinchenko reports from the scene.
[Correspondent] The Yeniseyskaya pit hunger-strike is in its 10th day, but with half as many now taking part as at
the outset. At the miners' request, women and seventeen workers recommended not to take part by doctors for health
reasons gave up the strike. Three miners were taken to hospital yesterday.
[Omitted: Doctor explains their health is deteriorating.]
The hunger-strikers' main demand is that their wage arrears be paid. They have not been paid since October last
year. Almost 400 people work here, and they are owed around R9m. At the end of the 1980s, this mine was in the top ten
for the whole of the Soviet Union, extracting up to 1.5m tonnes of coal per annum, but over the past three months all
work here has ceased. When the wage arrears started to mount, the miners refused to go down to the coal face. [Passage
omitted: miner comments]
Even the workers don't know who their grievance is with. The mine was privatized a year ago. It was acquired by
an entrepreneur in Moscow, whom the miners say they have not seen once. The hunger-strike began only once it emerged
that the mine had been sold on to another owner, who was intending to declare the enterprise bankrupt. They went through
bankruptcy here three years ago, and the wages were not paid then. The workers fear the same could happen again. Most of
the hunger-strikers owe money for municipal services and bailiffs have already taken their property. [Passage omitted:
Another miner comments on lack of money]
Doctors say that if the hunger-strike is not called off in the next two or three days, the majority of those still
standing at the moment will have to be hospitalized. But the miners have no intention of giving up their demands.
The Khakassia government has set up a special commission to investigate the situation at the Yeniseyskaya mine. The
prosecutor's office has started criminal proceedings against the mine managers and owners for failure to pay taxes
and fraud. They are promising to give the workers their money on Tuesday [27 April], but if that does not happen, the
miners plan to continue their hunger-strike.
[Channel One TV] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
