Three thousand instead of three hundred

Payments to Gukov miners have been suspended - for an indefinite period. The miners intend to continue the hunger strike

Despite promises from Rostov Governor Vasily Golubev, wage arrears to Kingcoal miners have been suspended indefinitely. The payments were made by the Rostov Region Development Corporation - its representative explained to the miners that the money had run out. In total, the miners were paid 19 million out of 350.

The development corporation decided to start paying off the debt for May 2015 - and stopped there. Payments were made after the initiative group of miners refused the "governor handouts" (then Golubev promised 50 million rubles "immediately") and demanded payment of the full amount. “These pennies will stop after the elections anyway,” the miners said, and they turned out to be right.

“They gave out from 20 rubles to 20 thousand. On average, people received thousands of 3-4. This did not improve the situation at all, given that the debts to us are 200-300 thousand each. We couldn't even repay the loans,” says mine surveyor Tatyana Avacheva, a member of the initiative group. “And not everyone received even this minuscule amount. At least some payments were received by employees of Gormash CJSC, Zamchalovsky Anthracite, Almaznaya Management Company (part of the Kingcole group of companies. - E.K. ). Service enterprises employing 500 people - doctors, drivers, telephone operators, computer engineers, "Empire of Purity", "Spetsuglestroy" - builders, specialists in the repair of barrels - did not receive anything, - says the bomber Nikolai Vasilyevich Nadkernichny. - They also appointed some kind of "ceiling of payments" - 28 thousand 500 rubles. Those who owe more than 30,000 in May received nothing. Foreign citizens – Ukrainians worked for us, for example – didn’t get anything.”

The suspension of payments to miners was announced at an interdepartmental meeting in Rostov. Rostov Minister of Energy Mikhail Tikhonov began by being in Moscow, negotiating with Bin-Bank - he asked to remove the collateral burden from the property of the enterprise so that the miners would be creditors of the first stage. Now Kingcole is bankrupt, the property is put up for auction, but 80% of the proceeds from the sale of the property will go to the bank, 5% to the bankruptcy trustees, and only 15% is planned to be used to pay off the debt to the workers. All property of the Kingcole mines is pledged in the banks. The workers say that there is practically no property left - the mines are flooded and devastated, the equipment was taken out in an unknown direction. The head building of Kingcole in Gukovo, where miners gathered for rallies, was put up for sale for 53 million rubles. Now the price has been reduced to 50, but no one has yet been found who want to buy a building in a city doomed to die. In Soviet times, 90 mines worked around Gukov. Now, with the bankruptcy of Kingcole, there are only four left. The miners got jobs as security guards and taxi drivers, but most never found work. The only enterprise in the city that is not connected with coal, the clothing company Gloria Jeans, “has such a production rate that it’s impossible to earn more than 8 thousand.”

The second debt that the state promised to repay and did not repay is coal. The company owes more than 7,700 tons of coal to its employees for three years. In Gukovo and Zverev, most of the houses have stove heating. Minister Tikhonov promised in August to issue a thousand tons, but this did not happen either. At the moment, 100 tons of "coal mass" - land mixed with coal - have been issued for 2,200 families. It turned out to be impossible to heat it. “The minister said: I will keep my word,” says Nikolai Nadkernichny. - They say that this week people should receive 200 tons from the Obukhov mine, the remaining 700 - in November. In November!" “Planting between the fields, so that the wind does not steal the black soil from the fields, is now being cut down for firewood. Acacias are mostly there,” says Tatyana Avacheva. - Gukovo, Zverevo, Sulin, everyone is chopping - but what to do?

Rostov miners went on a hunger strike for more than a month - from August 22 to September 27. “Further health was not enough,” says Tatyana. “They didn’t stop - they suspended it in order to restore health before a new round of struggle. The system breaks down for a long time,” says Valery Dyakonov, the organizer of the miners’ protest.

In early October, the initiative group traveled to Moscow to deliver a letter to the presidential administration. “Advise on what measures to resort to, so that we are heard? the miners ask Putin in a letter. - Block the highway, the railway, declare a hunger strike, take officials hostage, burn yourself? According to the “extremist letter”, the miners have already been summoned to the prosecutor's office. “And the minister is like this: “So what if you went to Moscow to the presidential reception room. They called me the same day, asked questions, and I answered,” says Nadkernichny. While the miners are waiting for the president's response and plan to resume the hunger strike - but "already in a new format."

Every day a rally is still going on in Gukovo, from 11:00 to 12:00. The house, which was built all summer opposite the Kingcole building, interfering with the rally, is almost finished - there are 4 floors, balconies and interior work remain. For 4 months, nothing was decided for the miners.