End of strike miner in sight, but when

BULQIZA, Sep. 7 – The representative of the trade union for miners in the Bulqiza mine who have been on strike for almost two months said that a deal was getting near but there was still no clear agreement with the company.
Last week the ACR, the concession company that operates the chrome mine in Bulqiza, called on the miners to return to their workplace promising a solution to the situation by offering to pay the 13th salary offer within a week, the signing of individual contracts which include an increase by 20 percent of miners’ wages, improvement of work conditions and transparency over its investment plan.
In the meantime, some technicians have been taking care of the maintenance down in the mine.
The company invited the miners to show up at the administration offices of ACR to sign the new individual work contracts.
The miners of Bulqiza have been on strike since July and negotiations to bring them back to work have so far failed.
Meanwhile the Ministry of Economy has decided to suspend licenses for 55 mining companies, in a move that is more likely aimed to calm down the Bulqiza miners.
On Tuesday, authorities started procedures for the revocation of licenses for 55 companies operating in the mining sector. The decision was taken following several inspections by Albania’s National Agency of Natural Resources, which found that a number of subjects in possession of mining licenses failed to fulfill legal obligations, it said in a press release. These
Companies have not been working and have failed to present the annual activity plan for 2011 as well as for previous years.