RUSSIA: THE MINERS WHO HELPED BRING BORIS YELTSIN TO POWER NOW WANT TO BRING HIS GOVERNMENT DOWN AND CALL FOR HIS RESIGNATION OVER WAGE DELAYS

Record ID: 639701

  • Title: RUSSIA: THE MINERS WHO HELPED BRING BORIS YELTSIN TO POWER NOW WANT TO BRING HIS GOVERNMENT DOWN AND CALL FOR HIS RESIGNATION OVER WAGE DELAYS
  • Date: 3rd December 1996
  • Summary: TULA REGION, RUSSIA (DECEMBER 3, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV/SV OF EXTERIOR OF EMPTY MINE (5 SHOTS) 0.20 2. LV MEETING HALL AT MINE 0.27 3. SLV/SVCU STRIKERS AT MEETING/ ORGANISERS CALLING FOR RUSSIAN PRESIDENT BORIS YELTSIN'S RESIGNATION (8 SHOTS) 1.07 4. SV/CU OF MINERS AT WORK ON LAST SHIFT BEFORE STRIKE/ EQUIPMENT (11 SHOTS) 2.06 5. SLV HUNGER STRIKER ALEXANDER MORDVINO AND UNIDENTIFIED COLLEAGUE 2.16 6. CU EQUIPMENT 2.19 7. MCU MORDVINO SAYING WE HAVE BEEN ON HUNGER STRIKE SINCE NOVEMBER 18. THE SITUATION IS CRITICAL (RUSSIAN) 2.36 8. CU BOTTLES 2.39 9. LV/SV OF MINERS' VILLAGE (3 SHOTS) 2.51 10.MCU COAL MINER VASILI BUGEROV SAYING VERY OFTEN WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO BUY BREAD -- ACTUALLY, WE NEVER HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO BUY BREAD( (RUSSIAN) 3.04 11.SV INTERIORS OF BUGEROV'S HOUSE/CHILD AT TABLE 3.09 12.SV MINERS' VILLAGE 3.12 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 18th December 1996 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TULA REGION, RUSSIA
  • City:
  • Country: Russia
  • Reuters ID: LVA9WNOEY4P6XQEKE5HUIX3S8NKQ
  • Story Text: The miners who helped bring Boris Yeltsin to power in Russia now want to bring his government down and have called for his resignation during a nationwide strike.

    The mine workers have not been paid for months and saidthey will not go back to work until all their demands are met -- even if it means power blackouts across Russia.

    Hundreds of thousands of Russian miners in Siberia have downed tools at the start of what they said would be an open ended strike.

    Teachers closed a string of schools on Monday and electricity workers in the region, home to more than two million people, plan a protest on Thursday.

    Trade union officials said about 400,000 coal miners joined the protest across Russia.

    In Tula, south of Moscow, miners worked on their last shift on Tuesday (December 3) before going on strike.

    During a union meeting they called on Yeltsin and his Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin to resign and blamed the government for the wage delays.

    Union leaders say the mine workers are owed at least 1.5 trillion roubles.

    Three Tula miners have been on hunger strike since November 18, and one of them, Alexander Mordvino described the situation as "critical".

    "Very often we don't have enough money to buy bread," coal miner Vasili Bugerov said, "actually, we never have enough money to buy bread." Looking back bitterly on the heady demonstrations of 1989 -- which paved the way for the fall of communism two years later -- the miners now say the revolution that they helped bring about has turned them into slaves.


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