Hunger strike continues, though company agreed to 20 percent pay rise

BULQIZA, Aug. 2 – The hunger strike of almost two dozen miners in Bulqiza chromium mine is continuing in its second week. Every day one or two miners are taken out and taken care of at the hospital. But soon after regenerating they turn back a mile deep into the mine.
The concession company operating the chrome mine in Bulqiza agreed Monday to a 20 percent pay rise and called on striking miners to end their hunger strike and resume work.
a representative of ACR declared that the company is ready to discuss with the miners about their other requests, adding that their primary request for a 20 percent wage increase has been met.
But 15 miners on hunger strike are asking for a 40 percent wage increase instead of the initial demand for a 20 percent increase, the improvement of work conditions, the lowering of retirement age and the dismissal of the ACR representative. DCM DECOmetal had been trying to negotiate with the miners, it offered to raise wages by 10% and agreed to most of their demands, but the strike has kept escalating.
They press Austrian miner DCM DECOmetal to meet their demands.
DCM DECOmetal has been acting in Albania through fully owned subsidiary Albanian Chrome Shpk or ACR.
The 700 miners have been staging the protest for three weeks, during which the mine has been shut down.
The Bulqiza mine is the richest chrome area in Albania, which he described a very humid, with little fresh air and added that some miners had headaches.
The mine produces 70,000 tonnes of chrome ore per year, and the company has become an integrated producer of 3,000 tonnes of ferrochrome per month since it took full control of the Bulqiza concession in 2007. It is Albania’s biggest employer.
miners were paid on average EUR 272.5 to EUR 287 per month and a food bonus of EUR 3.6 per day.
The Energy Ministry has decided to bar operations by companies in an area of the mine licensed to ACR. These firms had claimed to be its subcontractors but were independent operators.
authorities also fined the DCM DECOmetal with EUR 400,000 for not living up to its investment contract at the Bulqiza chrome mine, after it failed to invest in accordance with its program. ACR, DCM DECOmetal’s Albanian arm, had invested EUR 2.15 million at Bulqiza, short of its program of EUR 3.4 million in the 2007-2008 period.