Strike Day 5 at Bulgaria's Maritsa Iztok Mines

Business » ENERGY | January 19, 2012, Thursday // 11:42
Bulgaria: Strike Day 5 at Bulgaria's Maritsa Iztok Mines Bulgaria' s biggest state-owned coal-mining company, the Maritsa Iztok Mines. Photo by BGNES

The strike at Bulgaria' s biggest state-owned coal-mining company, the Maritsa Iztok Mines, headed into a fifth day on Thursday.

Reports about the percentage of morning-shift workers on strike vary between 92% and 77%.

The strike has so far caused losses of BGN 5 600 000 for the company.

No talks between the company's governing body and the syndicates have yet been scheduled.

If the start of negotiations is not agreed today, the syndicates have the right to organize rallies in front of the company's headquarters from January 20 to January 27.

The strike at the Maritsa Iztok Mines started on Sunday at 8 p.m.

The 7100 employees of Maritsa Iztok Mines AD insist that they be paid bonuses of BGN 1000 for the record output achieved in 2011 in line with an agreement signed on July 12, 2011.

The syndicates at Maritsa Iztok Mines AD insist that the employer comply with the document regulating the relative share of the wage costs in relation to the company's revenues.

They claim that Evgeni Stoykov withdrew his signature from the agreement despite the anticipated BGN 500 M in revenues of the company, thereby leaving the miners without year-end bonuses.

The management of Maritsa Iztok Mines AD, however, has said that it has fulfilled all of its commitments under the agreement.

The workers are also against shutting down power capacities in the country, which will lead to the closure of mines.

They also oppose the increase in the retirement age which they see as "genocide" towards Bulgarian workers.

On Wednesday, the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) refuted the claims of Angel Semerdzhiev, Chair of the State Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (DKEVR), that power prices would rise by at least 10% from July 01, 2012 unless the miners went back to work in a month.

The syndicates insisted that such allegations were an expression of extreme and harmful populism and constituted an attempt to set Bulgarian people against the "justified demands of the protesting workers".

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Tags: Maritsa Iztok mines, Strike, Miners' strike, coal mining, Angel Semerdzhiev, State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation, DKEVR, syndicates, CITUB, Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria

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