vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #543 / Social life / Reading article...

Thirty seven employees of Magadan Airlines, or Mavial, keep struggling through their hunger strike which they started October 22 to demand their back wages.

The hunger strikers are members of summer flight crews and stewards claiming their back wages, which total 44 million rubles ($1.6 million), Interfax reported.

According to one of the strikers, flight engineer Alexander Abelmas, the group initially numbered 40 people, three of them have already been hospitalized with attrition.

“We intend to keep on striking until our employers pay us all the money we’ve earned. I have two children who I currently cannot provide for, and other strikers here are in the same financial hole,” Abelmas was quoted by Interfax as saying.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday part of the company’s property of 12 apartments was sold at an auction to partially compensate their debt to Mavial’s employees, a press statement from Magadan administration said.

At the next auction on November 13, the air terminal will be displayed for sale, with a cost estimated at over 8 million rubles ($ 299,400). The sale of the company’s office equipment, furniture and vehicles will start in Magadan as soon as possible, the statement reported.

Mavial, Magadan’s regional airline, has not performed flights since April. The company, though officially not declared bankrupt, has overall debts estimated at 400 million rubles ($15 million).