Translated material
About the benefits of fasting
Sakhalin miners were promised to fully repay their wage debts
In the city of Shakhtersk on the island of Sakhalin, miners yesterday ended an eight-day hunger strike that took place in the mine at a depth of 142 m. Currently, 16 miners continue to be in the mine, who stated that they will not leave it until the entire staff of the Shakhterskoye mine management is paid their debts in terms of salary - about 34 million rubles.The miners remain underground, despite the fact that yesterday representatives of the labor collective of Shakhterskoye Mine Management LLC and the authorities of the Sakhalin region signed a protocol on paying off wage arrears. According to the signed protocol, the new bankruptcy manager of Shakhterskoye Mine Management LLC, Gennady Dolin, appointed yesterday, must ensure the phased payment of wage arrears to employees of the Shakhterskoye mine management by September 23.
Let us remind you that thirteen miners were the first to announce a protest action on Tuesday, August 30. The miners refused to rise from the mine after the end of the working day and handed over a note demanding that the administration of the Shakhterskoye mine management pay their wage arrears. On August 31, the number of participants in the indefinite hunger strike increased. She was supported by seven other miners. The governor of the Sakhalin region, Ivan Malakhov, also supported the demands of the strikers, saying that “such a prolonged non-payment of money earned by coal miners is a direct violation of the law.” At the same time, the vice-governor of Sakhalin, Sergei Sheredekin, who had headed the Shakhterskoye enterprise for several years, went to Shakhtersk.
By the decision of the Arbitration Court of the Sakhalin Region, Shakhterskoe Mine Management LLC was declared bankrupt in August 2002, and bankruptcy proceedings were opened against it at the same time. However, external management turned out to be as ineffective as the previous administration. Sakhalin miners have received their salaries intermittently for the last few years This summer, none of the 400 ordinary employees of the coal mining enterprise saw any real money. The inhabitants of a small town on the western coast of Sakhalin survive on their plots and the products that can still be obtained from the mine on August 15 of this year. dismissal, which forced them to turn to the most effective weapon of the proletariat in the conditions of modern Russia - a hunger strike.
The crisis in the coal industry on Sakhalin began in the mid-90s, since the coal seams where the Japanese began constant mining are severely depleted. In addition, the mines simply cannot compete with coal mines: open-pit mines are an order of magnitude cheaper to operate than closed mines. Dozens of mines have already been shut down in the Uglegorsk district of the Sakhalin region. The liquidation of coal mining enterprises leads to the extinction of entire villages. Such settlements as Arkovo, Mgachi, Boshnyakovo have already disappeared from the map of the island. It is possible that a similar fate awaits the small coal mining town of Shakhtersk. Today, city residents consider it a great success to get a job on a rotational basis at oil production complexes in the north of Sakhalin or at the construction of an oil terminal in the port of De-Kastri in the neighboring Khabarovsk Territory.
The prosecutor's office of the Sakhalin region ordered an investigation into the fact of non-payment of wages to Shakhterskoye workers. Currently, all documentation of the bankrupt enterprise has been confiscated. Yesterday, the prosecutor of the Sakhalin region, Yuri Denisov, announced that a criminal case had been opened against the bankruptcy manager of the Shakhterskoye mine management, Tatyana Dmitrieva, for non-payment of wages to miners and abuse of power, and she was taken into custody. According to the prosecutor, the coal produced by the mine was sold by the bankruptcy manager at a price of 600 rubles. per ton at a cost of 1000-1200 rubles. per ton.
The prosecutor said that Ms. Dmitrieva, on unfavorable terms for the mine, leased the enterprise's heavy equipment - excavators and trucks. According to Mr. Denisov, the total value of all the property of the enterprise, which is wanted by the prosecutor's office, is estimated at several million rubles.