The miners of the Zenica Brown Coal Mines Subsidiary, who went on strike on Thursday afternoon, did not go down to the “Raspotočje” and “Stara jama” pits this morning either – confirmed to Fena news agency, the president of the Trade Union ZD RMU Zenica Elvedin Avdić.
The miners of Zenica held a warning strike for the first four days of last week, every day from seven to eight in the morning, and on Thursday at 15:00, after they were not paid their wages or a hot meal for April, they went into labor disobedience. The union was forced to cancel the general strike that day, due to its inability to comply with the legal obligations to organize a general strike, but the miners refused to go down into the pits.
”Nothing has changed. The situation remained the same, the production workers did not go down into the pits. We don’t have any announcements about how to solve this situation,” points out Avdić, who notes that miners come to work just to register.
On Friday, the management ordered that the workers who want to work should declare this in writing, but, Avdić adds, the pit workers do not want to return to work until they receive their wages. Director Mensur Hukić, who also held a press conference on Thursday, pointed out that in the first four months of this year they planned to produce 147,841 tons of coal, but only 62,512 or 42.3 percent of the plan was achieved.
The blocking of the mine’s account, as of May 23, 2023, Hukić said at the time, was in the amount of 4,673,358.81 BAM, while they lacked 1,401,000 KM for the payment of the requested salary.
“Every worker’s disobedience, every suspension of production causes great damage to RMU Zenica and all employees,” said Hukić at the time, who asked the miners to return to work.
He also said that, if the problem is in himself, “his resignation is available”.
