Rescued miners paid in coal
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Relatives of the miners await news of the workers' fate.
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VIDEO
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Russian officials say 11 of 13 trapped Russian miners still alive, CNN's Ryan Chilcote reports from the scene in southern Russia
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NOVOSHAKHTINSK, Russia (CNN) -- After five-and-a-half days trapped in a coalmine, 11 Russian miners were brought to the surface in a dramatic rescue but their future and that of the mining town remains bleak.
"These men haven't seen a pay check in eight months. Sometimes they are paid not in cash but believe it or not in coal," says CNN's Ryan Chilcote, who watched the miners brought to the surface.
"This is a miraculous day but it is overshadowed by the continuing financial plight of these people. With the rescue of these men, many people fear, irrespective of what happens here the remaining three mines in this town will be closed, six have already been closed. There simply aren't the jobs in this town.
"The families of 33 miners who were rescued on Saturday were told that they would be given the equivalent of $400. The miners interestingly enough were thankful but several stood up and said that's good but what about our pay checks we haven't been paid for the last eight months. Why don't you take care of that problem! There is real anger here that they have not seen a pay check in a long time.
"Safety conditions in these mines in general, even according to the directors of the mines and the miners themselves Russian government officials are abysmal. This accident was completely predictable. There was an underground lake next to these mines that was flooding the six mines that had been abandoned slowly.
"In a perfect world in a well-funded world, that water was supposed to be pumped out of those mines so that it didn't break in and come bursting into this mine while there were people inside of it. No one bothered to pump this water out because it cost money and they make money here by mining coal not by pumping water out. So the decision making up to now has been on how to make money, how to keep these miners at work and the issue of their safety is somewhere in the background.
"An almost identical accident took place at this mine in March. It was supposed to be closed down after that but no one closed it down because, A) that is a difficult political decision to make, it means putting lots of miners out of work and, B) as long as the mine is still profitable and the miners are still willing to work and go down into the mine I think the logic of the moment, the pragmatic logic here on the ground is why close it?
"There is only one factory in town, a textile factory that makes jeans, where these men can find jobs. But that factory, as successful as it has been over the last year, isn't able to create jobs as fast as these men are now certain to be laid off.
"This (town) is in the heart of Russian coal country. When you walk around the ground has coal in it and the coal dust gets kicked into the air. This whole area is a coal basin and this town (Novoshakhtinsk) literally translated means 'new coal town' or 'new mining town.' Believe it or not a few kilometers from here there is a town called simply 'the mine.' Coal has been the lifeblood of this area since the 1950's."
"Once upon a time in the soviet era it was really prestigious to be a miner under (Leonid) Brezhnev and (Yuri) Androfov but ever since (Mikhail) Gorbachev came into power and the disillusionment of the Soviet Union, the miners feel that they have been forgotten ... their entire way of life has been buried here."
