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Saturday 20th of April 2024, 09:14 CET |
| Strikes in Georgia: Shevardnadze draws wallet |
February 12, 2003
RFE/RL Transcaucasia
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Written by Liz Fuller
Posted by HW on April 20, 2024
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USD 380,000 to stop strike
President Shevardnadze issued instructions on 11 February to allocate 800,000 laris ($380,734) from the presidential fund to pay the wage arrears of miners from the Chiatura Manganese Plant in western Georgia, Caucasus Press reported.
Five months wages
Deputy Minister of State Akaki Zoidze is to transport the money to Chiatura personally on 12 February. The miners launched a strike on 27 January to demand payment of five months" back wages. Between 12 and 20 female miners began a hunger strike inside the mine on 6 February. Operations at the mine were halted after the power supply was cut because management owes $25,000 in unpaid electricity bills.
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Others join
On 11 February, local teachers, traders, and transport workers joined the strike. Imereti Governor Temur Shashiashvili was quoted by Caucasus Press on 12 February as telling the independent television station Rustavi-2 that the strike was organized by people he declined to name but who he said have influential patrons in Tbilisi and who want to bankrupt the mine in order to buy it cheaply. |
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