Pavlohrad miners quit strike after signing protocol (06/21/98)

Pavlohrad miners quit strike after signing protocol

Eastern Economist

KYIV - Striking coal miners from the state holding company PavlohradVuhillia stopped picketing the Cabinet and Presidential Administration buildings on June 16. According to PavlohradVuhillia's strike committee leader Oleh Tsimmer, a protocol between the government and strikers has been signed.

According to the document, the Cabinet of Ministers is to immediately pay out 17 million hrv for wages owed for this year. Budget funds to the tune of 28 million hrv will be provided to PavlohradVuhillia in return for coal supplies for the state reserves and another 2 million hrv will go to the Blahodatna mine in the region. According to the Coal Industry Ministry, these funds will be targeted to repay outstanding wages.

The miners began their strike on May 24 and marched to Kyiv to demand their back wages. According to Hromada leader Pavlo Lazarenko, who met with the miners, they are completely satisfied with the results of negotiations with the Cabinet of Ministers, and their demands are being fully implemented. But the miners will not actually be leaving town until they have confirmation that funds have reached the bank accounts of the mines, according to PavlohradVuhillia strike committee member Oleksander Koroliov.

While the Ukrainian miners may only have received passive support at home for their strike, they saw more active sympathy from abroad. The general secretary of the International Federation of Workers in the Chemical, Energy, and Coal Industries, Victor Thorp, expressed "complete support and solidarity" with the Ukrainian miners on strike. According to a June 16 letter addressed to the Independent Miners Trade Union Association leader Mykhailo Volynets, some demands made of the miners and especially those that concern non-payment of salaries are "actually demands appealing to the basic rights of workers."

The same day, striking coal miners in Russia sent a statement to their Ukrainian "colleagues," expressing solidarity and support for their demands. The Russians called on the Ukrainian Cabinet to find a civilized way to resolve the miners' problems.

As the miners departed, Chornobyl Union members moved in on the same day to picket the Verkhovna Rada building. They blocked part of Hrushevsky Street to protest the legislature's unwillingness to discuss the creation of a Standing Committee on Chornobyl. The Verkhovna Rada has 22 committees - six more than in the last Parliament - but Chornobyl has been dropped from the list.