Workers of "Nairit" go on endless sit-in strike

A protest action in front of the building of the Armenian government is continued by about 100 former and current employees of the "Nairit" Factory. The protesters, who demand immediate repayment of their salary debts, began a sit-in strike.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that this morning a group of protesters blocked a street adjacent to government buildings. But in a few minutes policemen drove them to the pavement and restored the motor traffic.

According to protesters, they do not believe in the words of Ervand Zakharyan, the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Armenia, who assured that "within the next two days, all the employees of the factory will be paid their salary debts."

As explained by Anush Arutyunyan, the former press secretary of the factory, within the past three days the government paid wage debts to 800 employees of the factory, while the remaining 1700 are still waiting.

Ms Arutyunyan has added that protesters intend to hold their sit-in strike in front of the government building on the round-the-clock basis until the final worker receives his salary debts.

Activists have pointed out that so far none of the governmental officials came out to them. The only one who approached the protesters was Karen Andreasyan, the Armenian Ombudsman, who invited the protesters to his office on August 3, if their debts are still pending by then.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.