Kazakhmys Management Continues Talks With Protesting Kazakh Miners

KARAGANDA. Feb 2 (Interfax) – Several hundreds of miners of the Kazakhmys company, who seek higher wages and better working conditions, have remained in mines in the Karaganda region, Kazakhstan refusing to end the protest action, Pavel Shumkin, a representative of the union of the independent trade unions of the Karaganda region, told Interfax on Saturday.

According to Shumkin and a number of Kazakh Internet-based media organization, relatives and colleagues of protesting miners backed the action and gathered near the office of the Zhezkazgantsvetmet enterprise, a part of Kazakhmys company, in the town of Satpayev.

According to unofficial reports, a conciliatory commission, which will bring together representatives of the Kazakhmys company and miners, is being formed. The commission will discuss the protesters’ demands on Sunday.

The Kazakhmys press service told Interfax earlier that “Talgat Akhanov, the director general of the Zhezkazgantsvetmet enterprise, Talgat Magzumov, the enterprise’s chief engineer, and Asylbek Nuralin, the chairman of the trade union committee of the Kazakhmys company maintain contact with the miners.”

It was reported earlier that some 600 miners refused to leave the Yuzhnyi, Zapadnyi and Vostochnyi mines demanding higher wages, better working conditions, and lower pension age. Miners have many times asked the management of the company to do so, but as there was no reaction, they decided to stage the protest action.

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