Posted on 04/23/2014 8:45:04 PM PDT by tcrlaf
Over 2,000 coal miners in Lugansk region have been on strike for the second day running, demanding higher wages and refusing to accept a pay cut to fund the restoration of Kiev, which suffered damage during the coup that overthrew the government.
Some 80 percent of miners from five coal mines belonging to "Krasnodonugol" enterprise in the city of Krasnodon have not shown up to work. The mines are all owned by one of Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov of the mining and metallurgical "Metinvest" corporation.
Angry miners are pressing for wage increases to match region's average pay, better social and living conditions and higher social bonuses. According to the strikers they get an average of 6,000 hryvnas ($520), while the average salary in the coal industry in the region is up to 10,000 hryvnia ($860).
Miners are also refusing to pay a 10 percent tax on their salaries, imposed by the post-coup authorities to restore the Maidan square in Kiev. The square and nearby buildings suffered significant damage during months of rallies and the violent standoff that led to a coup in February.
According to local media reports miners have seen around a 10 percent cut in their paychecks to restore the Ukrainian capital.
“I don't understand why are we involved!” one of the protesting miners, Stanislav Denisenko told Itar-tass. “It was not us who dismantled the stones and burned the houses down. I get about 900 hryvna a month, that is around 9,000 rubles ($260). I don't understand why they are taking away my salary.”
(Excerpt) Read more at rt.com ...
RT learned well from the Nazis. Repeat a lie often enough by characterizing the Ukrainian parliament operating constitutionally after the traitor resigned and fled to a foreign enemy a "coup," and gullible people will certainly believe it.
The East does not want to fund the Maidan regime.
Did any one really think they would be complicit in their own oppression?
They show Clive Bundy exactly how to do it.
This article makes no sense. The article admits that the mines are owned by Rinat Akhmetov, a Ukrainian oligarch who has been working with Russia to foment unrest in Eastern Ukraine. The article also admits that the miners on strike are being paid 40% less than other miners in the region. Yet we are to believe that the real reason they are on strike is because of some bizarre mystery tax that RT has discovered (but no one else has). Sounds like more propaganda to inflame the uninformed.
This is what happens when you just read Russian propaganda all day. All the polling data, again and again, states that the majority of people in Eastern Ukraine do not feel themselves threatened (well, they do expect Russia to invade), do not want annexation nor federalization. The Maidan itself was populated by people from all over Ukraine, including the East. There were ethnic Russians, ethnic Ukrainians, Jews, and many other ethnicities, marching in the Maidan. Even Right Sector was taking orders from a Jewish commander, paradoxically.
I am getting tired of the Putinists on this forum constantly repeating these stupid Kremlin lies.
Whatever RT has learnt, these people has a legitimate point.
Why should they pay this tax reducing already dismal income? Let the ‘revolutionaries’ (as far as you don’t like a ‘coup’ term) deal with it, many of them are rich people.
I’m disinclined to believe anything a known propaganda outlet says. Find a legitimate source from an actual news organization and we’ll talk.
MSNBC? BTW, I haven’t posted this article.
Don't post articles from Russian propaganda outlets. You aid and abet Putin who routinely has people beaten and killed who might be editors for the few (and rapidly decreasing) news groups in Russia.
I suppose Joe Biden is probably recommending they send in land management rangers to shoot some miners.
I repeat, I haven’t posted it and I haven’t posted RT ever:-)
I was giving you advice, not saying you posted the article.
“I am getting tired of the Putinists on this forum constantly repeating these stupid Kremlin lies. “
Another, lie is that the rust-belt East subsidizes the West.
When in fact, it is the other way around.
Short term, it would be economically preferable to let the Eastern provinces in rebellion go.
This are Putin paid internet trolls
This poster is a well known poster of all the Putin murderous lies spit out at Putin Propaganda Aka KGB run Russia Today !
Yes Putin has reactivated the Soviet 24/7 propaganda campaign.
~Another, lie is that the rust-belt East subsidizes the West.
When in fact, it is the other way around~
Figures? What part of the West apart from Lwow has any significant economy at all?
Dude, Yanukovych got 48% of the vote. A lot of people who who don’t want to be part of Russia, and probably a good portion of those who would meet your definitions of not wanting “federalization,” don’t accept the coup government as legit.
Right Sector, if it’s own statements and behavior are any judge, is literally a neo-nazi organization, whose members appear to largely be soccer hooligans and skinheads. Just because they may have been allied with some individuals who happen to be Jewish in opposition to a common foe does not change that. They are quite violent and their leaders are literal, not figurative, thugs. They are like the “Golden Dawn” party in Greece, who are semi-outlawed at this point. If anything, Right Sector cultivate a more openly skinhead oriented, neo-nazi image than even Golden Dawn. Please, look up these folks.
Anyone who does basic research on Right Sector will clearly see all that. The alliance between IMF friendly, liberal politicians and militant nationalist hooligans will in all likelihood not last long. Everyone with a clue understands that.
Ukraine is likely to be unstable for years, even with no external interference from anyone. Kiev may yet crash and burn solely on the basis of infighting among the anti-Russia factions. Especially after IMF managed “austerity” hits, it will be hard to hold this coalition together. Only time will tell.
Correct, it was not a coup. It was a “putsch”.
This about corruption in government and private industry not about Russia. Coal mining in Ukraine is one of the most dangerous jobs you can imagine
If they had an honest labor movement it could make a difference
He did the exact opposite of what he was voted in for, and was violating the Ukrainian constitution and having people kidnapped and beaten by his Russian-trained thugs. All the polling of the East and South indicate that Ukrainians, even ethnic Russians, do not want to be annexed by Russia, or federalized and then annexed by Russia. That is why many Eastern Ukrainians, Russians, Jews, Afghanies, and many other ethnicities besides, marched against Yanukovich and fought the good fight. And that is why Yanukovich's own party turned against him and condemned him as a traitor. He fled the country to a foreign enemy since he knew persecution was incoming from the Rada.
don’t accept the coup government as legit.
You have no evidence for your claims. The Ukrainian interim government is the Ukrainian rada that was democratically elected long before any of this happened. You do not know what you are talking about, and have no evidence for your claims.
Right Sector, if it’s own statements and behavior are any judge, is literally a neo-nazi organization,
Right Sector has no members in the Rada, and both Right Sector and Svoboda poll in the single digits in Ukraine.
Ukraine is likely to be unstable for years, even with no external interference from anyone. Kiev may yet crash and burn solely on the basis of infighting among the anti-Russia factions.
Ukraine is unstable due to Russian special forces and spies which Yanukovich brought into the government and melded into the power structures of Ukraine.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.