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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Miners Bury Coal Industry In Kyiv Last Wednesday

10 November, 1998 - 00:00

Last Wednesday Kyiv saw yet another column of striking miners, this time
marching to the accompaniment of a brass band, with several people shouldering
a coffin half filled with coal. This, in the organizing committee's opinion,
had symbolize the drawn-out ceremony of burying Ukraine's coal industry.

Mykhailo Volynets, head of the Miners' Union of Ukraine, told The
Day's Inna ZOLOTUKHINA: "Today the miners believe that they
can defend their rights to have the authorities pay their back wages only
by using strikes. That was why 153 Ukrainian mines stopped working last
Wednesday. 25 mines are still working but with no deliveries."

Mr. Volynets further noted that thousands of miners picketing the Verkhovna
Rada are just "the start" (for an umpteenth time, to be sure) and that
this was just a stage in what would evolve into a continuous strike. If
the government fails to meet their demands in the immediate future and
pays back wages currently totaling $600 million, the strikers will consider
further measures.

Last Wednesday Verkhovna Rada approved in its first reading a law in
restructuring coal industry debts, reports Iryna HAVRYLOVA, The
Day.

Social Democratic People's Deputy Ihor Pilipchuk states, "the law is
needed to protect the miners' interests, but it has loopholes that would
allow certain Coal Ministry officials to line their pockets. I am most
concerned that the money allocated would go to commercial structures engaged
in closing mines, and state organizations will again be left without work
or pay. We are wonderfully aware that such commercial structures are being
set up for money laundering, structures to which the law envisions allocating
the initial money even without the relevant licenses. I also turned to
the General Prosecutor demanding the investigation of Deputy Minister Pidhainy
be completed. It is known that after a criminal case had been opened in
connection with the theft of funds at one mine, he announced there had
been an attempt on his life and demanded bodyguards. However, according
to unofficial information, he had been attacked by persons in miners' hard-hats
demanding the return of the stolen money.

LATTER-DAY CHRONICLES OF MINERS' MARCHES

TO OFFICIAL KYIV

1989: miners staged their first strike in Donetsk and Luhansk,
demanding social privileges and better working conditions. They further
protested key posts in the coal industries being occupied by people "abusing
their offices." Authorities promised to "correct the situation." As a result,
the situation in the industry went from bad to worse.

1993: miners went on strikes demanding structural reform in the
coal industry, blaming the Cabinet for its absence.

1995: strikers went on their first protest march to Kyiv; the
government promised to pay back wages, but the process took months.

1997: some 1,000 striking coal miners arrived in Kyiv, staying
there for a week, demanding the payment of back wages. The government promised
they would get their money but failed to make payments in full.

1998: some 2,000 striking miners visited Kyiv from May to July.
Just as they do now, the wanted larger government allocations to secure
the coal industry in the 1999 budget program and pay back wages. Again
the government promised to comply.

The latest miners' protests took place also in Luhansk, Donetsk and
Dnipropetrovsk.

 

A short discussion between Holubchenko and Bakai gave a fundamentally
new turn to the polarization of gas-related forces. If the latter advocated
selling natural gas in Ukraine on the basis of bids and thanked the government
in advance for such opportunity, the former was driving at restoration
of the so-called regional schemes, assuring that nobody would have any
unfair advantage.

Perhaps the stumbling block here is not the gas supply arrangements,
but the list of gas traders to be admitted to the gas market next year.
Mr. Bakai, who is an expert in the business, told the meeting of his vain
efforts to "wring" something out of the gas traders to at least pay wages.
Under pressure from ferrous metallurgy, Holubchenko (who heads its association),
cannot accept the idea that the inevitable gas debts be laid directly on
state-owned enterprises. In short, the main struggle still lies ahead,
and certain experts state that the beneficiary could be the Unified Energy
Systems of Ukraine Corp., which could become able to pay its Hr 1.4 billion
to the budget if it is allowed to reenter the natural gas market, in particular,
to the metallurgical sector of the market. But it is already no longer
gas but political horse-trading.

The possibility of such bargaining also could come about with Ukrnafta
(Ukrainian Oil) also should not be ruled out also: a recent Ukrnafta shareholders'
meeting judged the performance of its board of directors as unsatisfactory:
the oil and gas produced by the company went to agents, and the money flowed
into to the sand.

Mr. Holubchenko made his contribution to the accumulation of oil and
gas secrets. Answering the question about the possibility to pay off debts
owed to gas producers, he hinted that this depends on positions of managers
of the two principal Ukrainian oil transportation companies, Liubomyr Buniak
and Stanislav Vasylenko, as well as on the deputy chairman of the State
Committee on Oil, Gas, and the Oil Refining Industry. According to the
experts, the matter concerns the dispute over construction of the Odesa
oil terminal. In this case Holubchenko seems to be bluffing a little. If
those companies do have money, the oil terminal will naturally draw it
in.

Incidentally. Kyivtranshaz, an Ukrhazprom subsidiary, urged its debtors,
Kyivhaz, ($6.8 million) and Kyivenerho ($282 million) to pay off their
debts, threatening them with legal action, picketing, and even shutting
off their natural gas supply.

 

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