The air traffic controllers of Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport are still on hunger strike.

‘They went on hunger strike on April 11, 2010 in order to support their colleagues in Rostov-on-Don and to make sure the management makes some changes to the collective agreement. As it is, the agreement contains some violations of the Labor Code,’ the trade unions’ lawyer Elena Goncharova said to a UrBC reporter.

‘The top executives of Ural Air Navigation, Transport Ministry, the federal aviation services, and trade union representatives met in Moscow on April 6, 2010. Unfortunately, this meeting did not result in any substantial achievements and the collective agreement kept all of its earlier legal faults,’ the lawyer explained.

The disagreement started as early as March 2010. According to Ms Goncharova, Ural Air Navigation’s Moscow-based headquarters sent in an order that decreased the employees’ pay and cut off a number of social benefits the staff used to have. This was why a number of workers refused to sign the new collective agreement.