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Eurasia
December 15, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 16
ArcelorMittal’s Kazakh unit files lawsuit against striking miners
bne IntelliNews
ArcelorMittal Temirtau (AMT), a Kazakh subsidiary of global steel producer ArcelorMittal, has filed a lawsuit against hundreds of striking coal miners who have been refusing to leave their mines in central Kazakhstan since December 11.
The officials received AMT’s lawsuit on December 14 - the company wants the court to rule the ongoing strike and the miners' union activities as illegal. Following labour strikes in the oil town of Zhanaozen in western Kazakhstan, which ended in clashes that killed at least a dozen people in December 2011, the government promised to improve labour relations and “modernise trade union institutions”.
Human Rights Watch argued last November that instead of introducing the promised changes,
the Kazakh authorities imposed burdensome registration requirements on trade unions as well as requirements for mandatory affiliation with higher-tier unions that stand at “stark odds with internationally protected workers’ rights” that allow employees to freely organise.
Kazakh Labour Minister Tamara Duisenova said on December 12 that the coal miners' strike in north-central Kazakhstan had spread across ArcelorMittal’s mines with 684 workers who spent two nights across eight coal mines in Qaraghandy Region refusing to surface. Kazakh authorities in Qaraghandy region said that 154 miners opted to stop striking and resurface from coal mines on December 13 after the regional governor, Erlan Qoshanov, met with them underground. However,
colleagues of the striking miners claim over 700 workers still remain underground in Shakhtinsk.
The workers are demanding wage increases of 100%, better healthcare and an earlier retirement age. ArcelorMittal Temirtau officials initially told RFE/RL that new contracts were being drafted
to reflect the miners’ main demand, but the company appears to have settled on the lawsuit option instead.
ArcelorMittal operates a total of eight coal mines in Kazakhstan. Workers' strikes in the mining and energy sectors are not uncommon during winters in the country.
Duisenova told reporters on December 12 that the salary for a mine worker who works above ground stands at about KZT208,000 ($621) while a miner extracting coal receives KZT326,000 ($973) per month.
The Kazakh unit - a branch of global metals giant ArcelorMittal, which is owned by Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal - said in September that it was negotiating a new collective agreement with steelworker and miner unions and planned to sign it before the end of the year.
Earlier in December, dozens of striking
copper miners demanding wage hikes, also in Qaraghandy Region, refused to return to the surface until on December 3 Kazakh copper giant KazakhMys came to a consensus with the leaders of the strike on raising salaries.