Several hundred miners from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina gathered today in front of the Government building of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo, where they are protesting the difficult economic and social situation they are in.
As previously announced by the President of the Trade Union Committee of the Trade Union Organization of the Zenica Brown Coal Mine, Nedžad Duraković, around 150 miners left Zenica at 9 am this morning, while an additional 300 to 350 miners from other mines joined them at the Sarajevo Railway Station plateau.
He announced that around 150 of the approximately 525 remaining workers of that company will leave Zenica, while 300 to 350 colleagues from other mines will join them on the plateau of the Railway Station in Sarajevo.
“The Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, namely the Ministry of Energy, Mining and Industry, are the only address where we can currently expect our problems to be resolved,” says Duraković, who announces that the protest will last until their demands are met.
He recalls that they scheduled the protest due to unpaid salaries for May and June and failure to fulfill obligations towards workers who became eligible for retirement in 2024.
According to Duraković, the deadline for the payment of the June salary is July 25.
“At the end of last week in Tuzla, we had a meeting with the relevant minister Vedran Lakić and the director of JP EPBiH, Sanel Buljubašić, at which they offered us some solutions that are unacceptable to us. Specifically, they offered us that our salary would be paid in about 20 days, and they had no solution for pensioners. That is why we have to demand our rights through protests,” says Duraković.
Other demands that the miners will present during today’s protest are the fate of the announced law on the closure of RMU Zenica, which has already been decided, but also when the operational funds from the World Bank loan will be available and when RMU Zenica will be available.
The issue of the right to health care and verification of health cards for the remaining 525 workers of that company, which was also one of the miners’ demands, was temporarily resolved in agreement with the authorities of the Zenica-Doboj Canton, namely the Health Insurance Institute of the ZDK, which agreed to re-verify the health cards for these workers.
Before the work stoppage that they entered on July 4, the workers of the Zenica mine were working on pulling out the equipment and the “wide face” from the “Raspotočje” pit, which will be sold and installed in the Tuzla Kreka mine.
Due to the work stoppage, only mandatory inspection work is currently being carried out in the “Raspotočje” and “Stara jama” pits, as required by law during the work stoppage.
