‘96 people, headed by V. Zolotarev, refused to go up the ground after their shift was over at Krasnaya Shapochka mine (part of Severouralsk Bauxite Mine, aka SUBR) on March 26, 2008. These miners are still under the ground and are thus preventing the other shifts and mine sections from operating. The ongoing strike made SUBR management halt the other mines’ work for the time being,’ says a statement made by Russia’s Ore and Mining Trade Union’s Central Council and signed by the union’s chairperson M. Tarasenko.

The Council reports they consider the strikers’ actions to be a selfish provocation aimed at saving the reputation of their small trade union. As a matter of fact, these actions could serve as a good enough reason for the proprietor to stop bauxite production at SUBR altogether.

‘The organizers of the strike juggle with reasonable points like a rise in wages or no work on weekends, but they are at the same time destroying the other trade unions’ efforts in the same field,’ the Council’s statement explains.

After last year’s hard negotiations, SUBR’s revised Collective Agreement was signed by the members of the companies’ two main trade unions, including Mr. Zolotarev.

‘Mr. Zolotarev’s current actions are an attempt to make the other trade unions look bad and lure more members into theirs through blackening the other organizations. This isn’t what we call fair play, and such actions have always faced criticism from the global trade union community,’ the Council says.

Russia’s Ore and Mining Trade Union’s Central Council encouraged the workers to give up on these unscrupulous ways of fighting for their rights that only play down the trade unions’ image, to stop jeopardizing their lives, to go up, and to fight for their labor and socioeconomic rights in a more civilized way.