The government quarter of Kyiv was filled with protesting miners
Kyiv, March 02 (PolitNavigator, Vladimir Mikhailov) – On Tuesday morning, the government quarter of Kyiv was filled with protesting miners and Chernobyl victims. Near the Cabinet of Ministers and the Verkhovna Rada, they demanded not to cut wages and social benefits, as well as to pay off debts and dismiss the Minister of the Coal Industry Vladimir Demchishin.
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Participants in the action held posters with the slogans: “Repay your debts!”, “Stop Russian imports, give work to our mines and thermal power plants!”, “Thermal power generation and mines are the last Rubicon of our energy independence!”, “This budget is a stranglehold around the neck of the people!”
Chairman of the Primary Trade Union of Miners Viktor Turmanov, head of the Independent Trade Union of Miners of Ukraine Mikhail Volynets, and People's Deputy Igor Musiy addressed the audience.
Mikhail Volynets accused Vladimir Demchishin of unprofessionalism, the collapse of the industry and the imbalance of the payment system. “The miners are not paid for the shipped coal, the mines cannot pay for the electricity consumed, and in the end everyone owes each other,” he said.
According to the trade unionist, Demchishin’s team consists of incompetent people. “Some came with him from the financial sector, others he took from McDonald’s, and others came from the Billa shopping center. They destroy the entire energy sector,” he said.
At the end of January, miners already held a similar rally, but since then the situation in the industry has only worsened, said Oleg Musiy, chairman of the inter-factional commission in the Verkhovna Rada “Let’s Protect the Coal Industry”. Although Arseniy Yatsenyuk ordered the creation of an appropriate commission, which was supposed to develop a memorandum to resolve issues in the coal industry, and one of the points of the memorandum was the allocation of subsidies to the industry in the amount of UAH 2 billion, this document does not work, although the Minister of Energy signed it.
From the parliament building, the miners went to the Cabinet of Ministers, where the picket continued, and by 16:XNUMX they returned to the Verkhovna Rada - at which time the parliament meeting was supposed to begin there.
“We stand in solidarity with the miners of state mines, who simply will not survive without subsidies. 52 thousand people work in state mines, they may be left without earnings,” said Alexey Konovalov, chairman of the primary trade union organization of the Ternovskaya mine (Pavlogradugol OJSC, DTEK), in an interview with a PolitNavigator correspondent.
Kyiv's government quarter is overrun with protesting miners.