It is getting more difficult to work in our mines. At the meeting with the representatives of Elektroprivreda and the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), the key issues of miners in the direct production were not even mentioned. Journalists visited the Brown Coal Mine (in Bosnian: RMU) in Djurdjevik, where miners work by hand method which is old more than 50 years.
More than a year ago, a tender was launched in the Djurdjevik Mine for the supply of oil, without which mechanization cannot be started. Complaints that arrived were supposed to resolve everything within a month if it was all according to the law. Also, while it is said that there will be a restructuring of the mine, which will mean a surplus of jobs, in the Djurdjevik Mine, whose coal is crucial for electricity production, they are facing a shortage of labor. As many as 53 miners are waiting for their contract to be extended.
“With this lack of raw materials and lack of labor, believe me, the lives of workers are endangered, as well as the premises, machinery, and equipment. Due to the expiration of the fixed-term contract, we have 28 workers who are currently on suspension, and 20 workers whose contract expires on May 27th. We now have two people at the excavation, and we have a situation where only 12 people enter the production process in one shift, ” told Suad Nuhic, president of the Workers’ Union of RMU “Djurdjevik”.
“On this occasion, I would like to say that when it comes to underground exploitation, human lives are really endangered. I claim this responsibly because we don’t have a new steel luggage base coming in continuously where we need to build hallways. We install that fence on the main corridors, and then repair it, which is strictly forbidden. We have had that collapse recently. Thank God, no one was there, because he would certainly not have been taken out of there for three days, ” warns Suad Sehic, president of the Trade Union of RMU” Djurdjevik “.
These problems are more than 10 years old. As Suad Nuhic states, politics governs everything and determines all.
“As politics intervened, everything somehow went downwards. Why am I saying that politics has intervened. Because since 2009, as we are in the concern and since the management structure is Elektroprivreda, they appoint management structures, they appoint their people, politically eligible, to managerial positions. We have a profession, I will not say that those who perform these duties are not experts, but are influenced by politics, since politics holds them and they must perform the duties of politics, ” told Nuhic.
“We would like to say to them if they can produce electricity, let someone come from Sarajevo, let some of some politicians come and tell us that the Djurdjevik Brown Coal Mine is not needed, we are ready to accept that, but then we will see if we will be in the light or darkness,” Sehic said.
Darkness has already appeared over the mines in the FBiH, as the interlocutors say and openly ask why the energy sector is sinking, BHRT writes.
E.Dz.
