12:00, 25 June 2009

Rostov Region: miners refuse going up demanding wage payment

In the Rostov Region, miners of the Chikh Mine located in the city of Shakhty have announced a strike with a demand to get their three-month salary debts. Last night a shift staff of miners - over 30 persons - refused to go upstairs from their mine.

Now, the miners who started their protest action on June 24 are still under the ground. Sergey Mikhalyov, Minister of Energy, Engineering Infrastructure and Industry of the Rostov Region, has arrived to meet the strikers. He convoked an emergency sitting in situ. The sitting ended in the evening on June 24, but no decision was reached. The Minister decided to stay there until the situation is resolved, the "Don-TR" reports.

All the 34 miners are under the ground since yesterday, waiting until all the debts are paid out to all the workers of the mine in full. They feel normal and receive food and water. There is information that the mine bosses promised, as the aftermath of yesterday's negotiations, to liquidate all the debts today in the afternoon, as the "Gazeta.Ru" writes.