Miners Set to Win Rights With Hunger Strike

BULQIZA, Albania, Aug 18 – Miners at the Bulqiza chrome mine in northern Albania are determined to win their rights with a relentless hunger strike going on its fourth week.
About a dozen of them continue to strike, while others are replaced when their health conditions deteriorate.
Hundreds of other miners expressed their solidarity with their moral support outside of the mine.
Negotiations have failed to reach any agreement until now.
The Austrian company DECOMetal, DCM, known as Albanian Chrome, or ACR here, agreed to raise their salaries by 20 percent as they had asked for at the beginning. But meanwhile, following failed deals until then, the miners raised their request to 40 percent hike of their salary which has yet to have any answer.
The company has said it is willing to negotiate with the miners, but not with the unions that represent them.
around 700 miners are striking. Earlier this week miners in Puka and Rrezhen also stopped their work.
Besides the pay rise they also want payment for the workdays lost during the strike and improved working conditions, such as places to eat and shower.
The miners’ average net salary is about 30,000 to 40,000 lek per month, and they receive about 17,000 lek in compensation for food. The minimum wage in Albania is 20,000 lek.
The Energy Ministry agrees with the miners’ demands but not with the strike, urging “constructive dialogue” and strict implementation of the laws. It has already suspended ACR’s license in one mining zone, saying conditions must be improved.
The prospects are not clear at this moment. The closure of the mines is bringing grave consequences to the situation of the mines themselves and also miners themselves, the company and also the government.
Albania’s Mine Inspection and Rescue Unit has filed a criminal case at the Serious Crimes Court for the organizers of the miners’ hunger strike. The organizers of the hunger strike will face charges for serious damages to public property, and gross violations of safety in the workplace.
But the miners are set to achieve their goals.
Trade union representatives have said they will scale up the protest and hundreds of miners and their family members blocked the national road on Thursday.
There seems to be a lack of trust between the company and the miners.