[PEN-L:375] The Authorities Try to Divide the Russian Working Class

[Gregory Schwartz <grishas@xxxxxxxx>]

Pressure Mounts on Miners to Stop Rail War

MOSCOW -- (Reuters) Miners protesting against wage delays came under
growing pressure on Wednesday from nuclear scientists, regional
officials and irate train passengers to halt their blockade of railway
lines.

"We have an appeal from scientists and workers of nuclear waste
processing centers to the miners asking them to halt their rail war
immediately," said Salim Fatykhov, a spokesman for the governor of the
Chelyabinsk region.

Hundreds of coal miners were blocking the strategic Trans-Siberian rail
link for the third consecutive day on Wednesday.

"People from the blocked passenger trains are getting off and some are
very aggressive -- they even try to beat up the miners. We have police
units there to prevent any fighting between them," Fatykhov said.

But he added that the miners were not giving in to the pressure and were
unlikely to lift their blockade before the end of the week when Energy
Minister Sergei Generalov is expected to arrive for talks with the
miners.

Fatykhov said most people, including the nuclear scientists, supported
the miners' demands of timely pay, but said their rail blockade was
damaging to the region and its population.

The scientists said the nuclear waste might pose a threat to the
environment if held up for a long time while the main regional waste
processing center, Mayak, needed constant electricity supplies from a
local coal-powered utility.

"Otherwise, the power station will have to switch to gas and the local
coal will no longer be needed," said Fatykhov.

"They (miners) are cutting the oxygen to themselves as their protest is
also damaging the South Urals railroad which accounts for a big part of
regional budget revenues and in its turn supplies the miners and their
families with cash."

Fatykhov and other officials played down the miners' threat to cut the
country in two by blocking all possible detours unless they promptly
received wages owed to them.

"This is virtually impossible. We can divert trains to Omsk and
Sverdlovsk and even send them via Kazakhstan. The cargo will go through
but such detours are expensive."

The Railway Ministry said a total of 34 trains had been diverted as of
Wednesday morning and that financial losses from the blockade had
reached 12.3 million rubles ($2 million).

More than 300 miners, many with their wives by their sides, blocked the
strategic rail link on Monday, just days after a government commission
managed to pacify their comrades eastwards along the line who had been
blocking it for about a week.

Trade unionists say Chelyabinsk miners are owed hundreds of millions of
rubles, but they insist on immediate repayment of about 60 million
rubles ($10 million).

Fatykhov said an Energy Ministry commission arrived in the region for
talks with the miners, but the unionists insisted on a higher-ranking
delegation, including Generalov.

Regional authorities have scrambled to pay off wages due up until May
but have no money left to pay salaries for June and July. They want
Moscow to intervene to pay what state-owned enterprises owe to the
miners.

Meanwhile, on Sakhalin island north of Japan in Russia's Far East,
dozens of miners blocked coal supplies by rail and road to the main
regional power station for the fifth day, causing power cuts to homes
and businesses.

In the Far Eastern Primorsky region 18 miners barricaded themselves and
their mine's director in his offices and declined to take food or leave
until they were paid months of delayed wages, Itar-Tass news agency
said.

Russian industry has been crippled by unpaid debts, with firms failing
to pay one another, and the government unable either to collect taxes or
to pay its own bills. Many firms have withheld workers' salaries rather
than face bankruptcy.

--
Gregory Schwartz
Department of Political Science
York University
4700 Keele St.
Toronto, Ontario
M3J 1P3
Canada

Tel: (416) 736-5265
Fax: (416) 736-5686
Web: http://www.yorku.ca/dept/polisci