Romanian Miners Stage Spontaneous Protest Calling For Higher Wages, Improved Work Conditions

They are displeased that the Economy Ministry failed to observe a protocol signed with miners’ unions on January 17.

Some 200 miners at the Lonea coal mine in Petrila are marching to the headquarters of the national coal company CNH Petrosani to demand their right. The Lonea coal mine, located in Petrila, is five kilometers away from the CNH headquarters.

Union leader Tiberiu Cozma said unionists and the company management will continue negotiations started Tuesday in an attempt to solve problems. According to Cozma, a solution to miners’ problems rests only with the Economy Ministry.

Miners call for improved work conditions, new personnel and higher wages.

On January 17, Romania’s Economy Ministry signed a protocol with the miners’ unions in national coal company CNH Petrosani, regarding the payment of a new tranche of severance pay to employees laid off in 2011.

The ministry said in a press release back then that the protocol resolved issues regarding the payment of the third tranche of severance to personnel laid off in 2011, the personnel deficit created by departures for retirement in 2012, and created the legal framework to set the delivery price for coal back in relation to the company’s production costs.