Workers of "Kingcoal" leave meeting with authorities in protest

Most miners, who came on August 19 to the meeting with officials in Gukovo, left the event early, since they failed to obtain guarantees for payment of wage arrears.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the enterprises belonging to the group of companies "Kingcoal-South" are at different stages of bankruptcy, and General Director Vladimir Pozhidaev is taken into custody. The miners demand to pay off wage arrears and solve a number of social issues. Otherwise, they threaten to go on hunger strike.

On August 19, the former office of the "Kingcoal" company hosted a regular meeting of the miners with the authorities, in particular, with Alexander Mikhalev, Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of the Rostov Region, Viktor Gorenko, Mayor of Gukovo, Valery Potseluiko, Municipal Prosecutor, and Andrei Saveliev, Deputy Minister of Energy of the Rostov Region.

The miners are planning to start a hunger strike on August 22. The officials have already called the miners' hunger strike the blackmail. This was told to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Dmitry Kovalenko, a member of the initiative group to coordinate the miners' protest actions.

Meanwhile, at the meeting, Mayor Viktor Gorenko has reported that at present, the authorities are still not willing to give the miners their ration coal, and Municipal Prosecutor Valery Potseluiko has expressed his astonishment with the fact that he is addressed concerning the wage arrears of the "Kingcoal" company. This was emphasized by Dmitry Kovalenko. However, the Prosecutor has assured the miners that the situation of the "Kingcoal" attracted the prosecutors' attention yet in 2014, and at present, the Prosecutor's Office continues to deal with it. In response, the miners have stated that they see no results of the above mentioned activities.

"The meeting took place at a very high tone. However, finally, it has come down to the likelihood that we cannot get our money. Most of the miners who came to the meeting decided not to wait for its end and left the room," said Dmitry Kovalenko.

He has also added that more than 100 miners have expressed their intention to support the hunger strike, and they have already started to submit the notifications on the hunger strike to the Prosecutor's Office.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.