Planned risk
How will Ukrainian miners benefit from the new law?
The law confirming the prestige of Ukrainian miners was long awaited. The new legislation is meant to ease the coal miners’ daily burden and improve their lives. It envisages a revision of the pay scale, higher wages and pensions, and various social benefits for miners, as well as more budget appropriations for the mining industry.
This long-expected news caused an avalanche of positive emotions among the coal miners of the Donetsk Basin (Donbas), but their joy proved short-lived because Ukraine’s mining industry continues to be plagued by various unresolved problems.
EVERY WORKDAY COULD BE THE LAST
Low pay, outdated equipment, deadly risks in the pits, management’s negligent attitude to legally mandated safety regulations, and the secrecy surrounding the actual causes of accidents are just some of the coal miners’ grievances in Donetsk oblast, home to a variety of mining companies.
Coal miners’ concerns are the subject of a special study entitled “Problems Facing Mining Companies in the Donbas, as Seen through the Eyes of Residents of Mining Towns.” Commissioned by the Donetsk Oblast Council, the study was carried out by a team of researchers led by Olha Semchenko, a political science lecturer at Donetsk National University. The research team polled a total of 1,250 miners employed by the region’s largest mining companies.
Most of the respondents (38 percent) said that the biggest problem with Ukraine’s coal mines is the meager and often delayed pay. Although the government is constantly proposing changes to improve the situation in this industrial sector, there is no light at the end of the tunnel. The Donbas miners also feel very skeptical about the newly instituted hourly wage, which will only exacerbate their situation.
“We may end up being paid even less. The problem is that our mining companies are in a catastrophic state. The equipment is so outdated and the accident rate is so high that we have to spend most of our time hanging around, waiting for emergency repairs to be completed,” Anatolii Bahanets, a coal miner from the town of Dobropillia, told The Day.
However, low pay is not the only problem. Miners complain about the absence of social protection (5 percent), lack of production prospects (2.9 percent), and staff reductions (3.4 percent). This is peanuts compared to the deadly risks that miners face every work shift because of their obsolete equipment. This is the number-one problem according to the Donbas miners, although there are other pressing problems.
A total of 61 percent of respondents, regardless of age and other social characteristics, commented on the dangers of their work. Every workday is a survival test for them. They complain that in terms of the accident rate and equipment, their work in the region’s coalmining companies is no better than in unauthorized pits. According to the miners, the most dangerous mines in the Donbas are Chervonoarmiiskvuhillia (based in the towns of Dymytrove and Rodynske); Dzerzhynskvuhillia (Artemove, Kirovo); Artemvuhillia (Horlivka), Donvuhillia (Donetsk), and Lysychanskvuhillia (Novodruzheske and Kreminna in Luhansk oblast).
“We often go out on our shift and say good-bye to everyone, as though we are not expecting to come back from the pit. We never know what will happen to us down there, whether our equipment will work well or break down, whether there will be an abnormal methane level. Leaving home is especially hard. I can’t look my family in the eyes. There is nothing I can promise them,” Bahanets said.
Ukrainian coal miners are refusing to put up with this situation. They are quitting their jobs and finding employment in companies with better working conditions, leaving a huge manpower gap at their former places of work. “We lack qualified personnel, mining electricians and mechanics, and plumbers. The labor pool consists of more than 1,500 people, who right now could be introducing effectiveness into investments slated for modernizing coal mines. They are being upgraded and they have to be exploited under full payload,” complained the mayor of Donetsk, Oleksandr Lukianchenko, who only has statistics on the “mining capital” of Ukraine. If you consider the statistics of the whole region, the lack of personnel in the mines of the entire Donbas regions is staggering.
Moreover, considering that the obsolete mining equipment in Donetsk oblast has the worst effect on the performance of qualified personnel, including those who operate high-precision instruments, the resultant losses are even more serious. These days, specialists are refusing to be hired by mining companies in this region; they know that they are the best in the field, so why should they risk their lives when they can find jobs at companies with safer working conditions?
These highly qualified miners are keenly aware of the prestige and importance of their occupation, so they are not prepared to remain in their jobs simply for the sake of prestige alone. Unfortunately, the high status of coal miners in Ukraine remains only on paper.
POOR MANAGEMENT
Besides outdated mining equipment, there are other causes of mining accidents, including the lack of qualified management.
A total of 17.4 percent of respondents stated that the local mining management doesn’t give a damn about the miners’ safety (66.7 percent indicated Makiivka in Donetsk oblast and 54.5 percent, Krasny Luch in Luhansk oblast). Lack of funds to purchase modern equipment is mentioned by 10.9 percent of the respondents. Some 13 percent said that all their problems result from mismanagement.
The managers of mining companies barely react to miners’ complaints. They have their own views on the reasons behind the tragedies that occur in the pits. First and foremost, they cite “poor mining and geological conditions.” This is precisely what happened in the aftermath of the explosion at the Karl Marx Mine (Yenakiieve) in April of this year, the worst accident in the history of Ukraine’s mining industry.
Coal miners say that safety regulations are often ignored, but when a tragedy occurs, very few people are aware of the real causes. Thus, 45.8 percent of the respondents stated that the true causes of accidents are kept secret in the Donbas; 28.7 percent agreed with this statement, and 3.9 percent disagreed. All told, approximately 40 percent of currently employed coal miners do not trust their management when they report accident causes, and 20 percent simply refuse to trust such reports. Much to the pollsters’ surprise, most respondents said they didn’t trust the findings of foreign (“independent”) experts in the aftermath of accidents. The reason is simple: the ignorance factor. With no understanding of independent experts or commissions, people a priori distrust them.
THE SCHEDULE COMES FIRST!
The high level of miners’ mistrust — at times even disrespect — of their company management is giving rise to a new problem: the miners of the Donbas are unanimously refusing to work “for the master.” This idea is especially topical in connection with recent statements about the need to privatize coal mines. Initially, private investments may rejuvenate the mines, and the new owners will show some respect for the miners’ problems. Eventually, though, the owners will join the race for revenues, and all the hardships will return.
According to Mykola Metrov, head of the Dobropillia branch of the Independent Miners’ Trade Union of Ukraine, the problem lies primarily with investors. They don’t want any long-term projects; they prefer mines with good prospects, where they can invest today and get dividends tomorrow.
This was the case with the Dobropilliavuhil State Enterprise. A few years ago it received a fresh impetus thanks to investments, but the miners who work there say that the company is practically destroyed: miners are still receiving their wages late and safety regulations are being ignored.
Metrov says that miners hired by private companies consciously risk their lives in the pits, ignoring their sensors’ alarm signals simply because they don’t want to stop working, even if their lives are in danger. It’s quite simple: coal miners must fulfill their output quotas, so responding to danger signals makes it impossible for them to reach their quotas.
Although this can be avoided somehow at a government-run mining company, the situation at a private company is considerably more difficult: the owner will not forgive any losses and will fire anyone failing to produce the designated amount of revenues.
Miners don’t see any way out of this sad situation. Even though the recently enacted law raising the prestige of their work should by definition improve their lives, at the moment an entire range of crucial problems remains unresolved because no active measures to combat careless management have been mapped out.
The only thing that Ukrainian miners can do is hope that their managers will finally realize the importance of their work and do everything in their power to ensure that the miners themselves become aware of the prestige of their profession as they work with modern equipment, knowing that they will be safe during their working hours. This is mostly wishful thinking, however, because few people in Ukraine are prepared to invest their time, money, and energy in bettering the lives of Ukrainian miners.
