Employees of the Partyzanska Coal Mine in Antratsit (the town in Luhansk region occupied by Russian proxy forces), attempted to organize a strike demanding payment of wage arrears.
A journalist and blogger Denis Kazansky, citing a wife of one of the strikers, described the details of the response of the self-styled “authorities”.
“Our husbands went on a strike at the mine, demanding payment of wage arrears for the past three months, while all they got was just promises, again! Three days after that, at around 3:00 at night, when we were all asleep, hard pounding on our doors woke us up. Our kids were screaming, and so was I. My husband was in shock! They took him away as he had only his underwear on at a temperature of -2 C. They took a few people out of town, gave them shovels and forced to dig holes. While the men were digging, they told them what they would do to their wives and children! Eventually, they were released but they had to walk back to town in that cold. There was none around because of the curfew. My husband came home covered in blood and a blank look in his eyes,” the woman said.
Besides, Kazansky wrote, organizers of the strike were shortly fired, apparently in the management’s bid to ensure that none “muddy the water” at the mine.
“That’s it. The talk is short. Once you try to claim your rights in the “people’s republic” – you’re out. It’s not Ukraine where you can go on strikes,” the journalist wrote in his piece. (UNIAN/Ukrainian metal)
