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21 April, 2008
A hunger strike inside one of the bauxite mines of the world’s largest aluminium producer – United Company RusAl – again occurred last week, following the company’s refusal to engage in meaningful talks with the Miners’ Independent Trade Union of Russia.
A ten-day strike at the mine in the Sverdlovsk Region of the North Ural Mountains ended on 4 April after RusAl’s Sevuralboksitruda (SUBR) subsidiary pledged to begin earnest talks with the union. That dispute was reported by the ICEM on 7 April.
On 13 April, the strike flared up again, when 75 miners resumed the hunger strike inside the Krasnaya Shapochka, or Little Red Riding Hood Mine. The ICEM affiliate, Russian Trade Union of Metal Workers in Nickel, Cobalt, and Platinoids Industries, asked the ICEM to intervene on behalf of the Miners’ Independent Trade Union. A letter was then dispatched to SUBR President and General Manager Alexander Bulygin.
The 40 miners who remained inside the mine at week’s end surfaced following a 19 April meeting of 3,500 miners on the grounds of the company’s Kalyinskaya mine. The meeting produced a set of 16 demands that are now being passed to management.