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Coal miner strike halts Russian trains
New Kiriyenko government faces first major test
May 20, 1998
Web posted at: 11:17 a.m. EDT (1517 GMT)In this story:
- State of emergency
- Government officials to visit troubled regions
- Political fight
- Related stories and sites
KEMEROVO, Russia (CNN) -- Striking coal miners cut both main railway routes across Siberia, and workers elsewhere joined in growing labor protests on Wednesday as Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko faced his first serious test.
Strikes and protests have been gathering momentum for the past two weeks, led by coal miners demanding wages that are up to six months overdue. Teachers, scientists and other workers have been joining in.
So far, the protests have been mostly in remote mining regions and have not caused major disruptions to the national economy.
But the Kremlin is seeking to restore calm quickly as the protests spread. President Boris Yeltsin warned reporters against "overdramatizing" the miners' action.
State of emergency
Miners in the central Siberian town of Prokopyevsk blocked trains Wednesday along a railroad used as a detour route for the past several days because another group of miners has blockaded the main artery of the Trans-Siberian railway.
The governor of the Kemerovo region, Aman Tuleyev, declared a state of emergency Wednesday, though he said no force would be used against the miners.
The wage protest gathered further momentum with miners in Chelyabinsk, in southwestern Siberia, joining the action and pensioners and handicapped people in Siberia's Krasnoyarsk region blocking rail lines over late payments.
Miners in the southern coalfields of Rostov-on-Don have paralyzed rail traffic, bringing all rail traffic to the North Caucasus region to a halt.
Railway blockades in Kemerovo and other regions forced a total of 420 trains to stop on the tracks, the Interfax news agency reported.
Government officials to visit troubled regions
Kiriyenko met with union leaders Wednesday and said any solution would have to be negotiated.
The prime minister also ordered deputy prime ministers Boris Nemtsov and Oleg Sysuyev to cancel trips to Italy and South Korea, respectively. Instead, Nemtsov is to fly to the Rostov region with Sysuyev leaving for Kemerovo.
Kiriyenko denied that authorities will use force to control protests, calling those reports a "provocation".
Yeltsin later met with Kiriyenko to discuss the labor problems and said that 10 days ago he signed an order which would fully solve debts to miners.
Overdue wages are a chronic problem in the Russian economy, and they often prompt strikes.
But in many cases, the workers protest for only a few days and then return to work with only vague promises that they will be paid on time. As a result, many previous strikes have fizzled.
Political fight
Government leaders have promised to find money to pay debts estimated at 8.7 billion rubles ($1.45 billion). But the miners say they have grown wary of such pledges and are beginning to demand Yeltsin's resignation.
Communists and their allies in parliament have responded to the protests by trying to launch impeachment proceedings against the president. But several previous attempts have gone nowhere.
"The situation is spinning out of control ... and the government is unable to solve any of the problems," Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov said Wednesday. "We support the initiative of coal miners, scientists, students and teachers who demand the resignation of the president."
Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty, Correspondent Steve Harrigan, and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Newsmaker profile:
- Boris Yeltsin - Russian President
Related stories:
- Yeltsin nominee confirmed as prime minister - April 24, 1998
- Russian Duma holds secret ballot in vote on premier - April 24, 1998
- Yeltsin's pick for prime minister faces final Duma vote - April 23, 1998
- Communist chief vows to defy Yeltsin over PM - April 22, 1998
- Report: Russian miners on strike despite settlement - December 16, 1996
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