Read this article in:
11 September, 2007
A strike by Ukraine’s two main coal mining unions last week at a state-owned company accomplished its goal: dismissal of the acting general manager. Some 9,000 coal miners of the Coal Mining Industry Workers’ Union of Ukraine and the Miners’ Independent Trade Union of Ukraine struck four major coal mines of the Krasnoarmeiskugol Company on 4 September, over mis-managed production and salaries.
The strikes started at the Centralnaya, Stakhanov, Dimitrov, and Rodinskaya mines near the eastern city of Donetsk in the Donbass coal basin. The first demand of the strike was met when the government dismissed the company’s general manager, Volodymyr Tymchenko.
After negotiations with two deputies in the Coal Ministry, Vladimir Fichev and Anatoly Bolotov, who were quickly dispatched to talk with striking miners, the decision was made to sack Tymchenko. At that, the two mine unions – both ICEM affiliates – decided to suspend the strike.
Tensions, however, remain high because of the salary issue. The country’s Coal Ministry wants to transfer 50% of workers’ hourly pay into norm-based remuneration. The mining unions are opposed. The mining unions also seek better production means. The strike comes as Ukraine desperately tries to attract investors to tap new seems of coal, namely in the Dnipr basin.
The strike, which could re-start by month’s end if the salary scheme isn’t resolved, came amidst Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko publicly stating that success in the coal sector cannot come without an increase to workers’ social status. He said wages and pensions are too low, saying that the current levels are unfair and less than what miners’ deserve. He also said technical equipment in mines is poor, and Ukraine averages a death rate of one miner for every one million tonnes of coal produced, twice the rate of that in other countries.