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By Russell Working and Nonna Chernyakova
Striking Sakhalin coal miners say the firing of Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko and his cabinet threatens an agreement to pay workers back wages and may force them to again shut down the power supply throughout the island. The miners, who are owed 11 months in back wages, say they won't return to work until the mines and the government pay the $22,900,763 they owe workers. And miners say the government of Viktor Chernomyrdin isn't honoring a payment schedule worked out by his predecessors. The situation is ironic: Sakhalin is a remote, oil-rich island north of Japan where petroleum giants such as Exxon and Mobil hope to tap into vast oil and natural gas reserves. Yet the coal-burning power station is running out of fuel, and Sakhalin residents may again find themselves facing 20-hour-a-day blackouts, as happened earlier this month when miners blockaded the rails outside the station. Since the blockade ended Aug. 6, strikers have allowed fuel from mines on the Russian mainland to get through, but they have refused to supply local coal because the power plant doesn't pay for it. And they are prepared to block the rails again. Sergei Volodarsky, head of the Sakhalin Miners Trade Union, said, "We haven't been sending our coal to the power station for more than a month. Our position is not to do so until all the debts are covered." Volodarsky said he had high hopes after negotiations with former First Vice Premier Boris Nemtsov. He worked out a schedule that provided a starting payment of $318 per miner. However, the new government hasn't honored the agreement, he said. Furthermore, as the ruble falls, the miners' unpaid wages drop in value. As the strike grinds on, federal officials have formed an investigative committee to find out what happened to money the government gave for the miners. The oblast police initiated a criminal case against Sakhugol, a mining company that allegedly used miners' salaries in order to buy food and sell it in markets. However, authorities have also launched a criminal investigation of the miners who shut down the power. Miners say the situation has gone on too long, and their poverty is increasing. "Nobody actually dies from hunger," said Igor Lebedev, a 41-year-old miner at Lermontovsky Strip Mine. "We help each other out. But it is humiliating. We cannot live like this anymore."
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