Miners Bury Coal Industry In Kyiv Last Wednesday

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.