23 January, 2012
An agreement was reached yesterday, 22 January, after a marathon 15-hour bargaining session between Bulgarian state-owned Maritsa East Mines (BEH-EAD) and two ICEM affiliates. The settlement ends a seven-day coalminers’ strike in Stara Zagora province that saw ICEM intervention last week.
The strike started at 20h00 on 15 January and was carried out jointly, cooperatively, and ultimately successfully by the Federation of Independent Miners’ Unions (KNSB/CITUB) and Podkrepa’s Miners’ Federation. The settlement produced a partial payment to a bonus that was promised the 7,000 miners last July, but more importantly, calls for improved working conditions, an increase in investment at the three open-cast mines, and a commitment not to consider privatisation.
Also, the settlement outlines guidelines to improve health and safety at Bulgaria’s largest mining complex, a key point raised in the ICEM intervention. The unions won assurances that the state company will make BGN 20 million (€10.2 million) available for safety.
The final talks occurred overnight on 21-22 January in Radnevo in south-central Bulgaria, center of the Maritsa mining and power generation facilities.
In the ICEM letter to Prime Minister Boyco Borissov and Economy, Energy, Tourism Minister Traicho Traikov, General Secretary Manfred Warda said, “Although remuneration issues are part of the dispute, we are of the certain belief that health and safety, lack of adequate equipment, and refusal of mine management to engage in social dialogue as mandated by European social charters are legitimate reasons for miners to withhold their labour.”
Maritsa East Mines CEO Evgeni Stoykov had sought to get the strike declared illegal, but on 20 January BEH-EAD withdrew such a petition submitted to a Bulgarian court. Also on that day, the state National Electricity Company (NEK) suspended electric power exports to Turkey, Greece, Serbia and Macedonia in order to cover its own domestic needs. In 2011, NEK exported a total of 10.5 billion KWH to those countries.
The suspension emboldened striking miners, with several hundred manifesting outside the headquarters of the company on 21 January. That sparked the urgency of weekend talks and produced the accord, which both unions said meet their requirements in ending the strike.
The Maritsa East Mines, Bulgaria’s largest deposits of lignite coal, supply 90% of the coal for the country’s power industry. The mines supply coal to four thermal power stations, three that are state-owned by BEH-EAD and the other one that is owned by ContourGlobal of the US.
Central to the dispute was revocation of an agreement signed on 12 July 2011 over a bonus premium for exceeding 2011 production levels. A targeted level of 27 million tonnes was surpassed and miners, who work 12-hour shifts, produced a total of 33 million tonnes, bringing a revenue stream to the company of BGN 500 million (€255 million).
Although miners did not get their full bonus demands, BGN 1,000 per worker (€509), that was offset by management retreating from cuts to a staffing plan which would have seen 450 jobs, or 6% of the workforce, furloughed. Such downsizing would have affected safety. The unions also won commitments to improve on continual shortages of equipment, spare parts and monitoring devices, which also impacted safety.
Maritsa East miners earn average monthly salaries of BGN 1,500 (€767).