Kakanj Miners End Strike, Breza and Bila Ready Protest
Kakanj miners ended their strike after getting paid and resolving health insurance paperwork, while Breza and Han Bila remain unpaid and plan a September 22 protest at Elektroprivreda BiH.
A labor standoff that had run since September 16 across three Bosnian coal mines has only partly been resolved, and the dispute between the miners and the management of Elektroprivreda Bosne i Hercegovine (Elektroprivreda BiH) is far from over. The story matters beyond Bosnia because of how tightly the region’s power supply is wired together: Bosnian coal mines feed the power plants that a chunk of the Western Balkan electricity market depends on, so a strike in the pits is usually an early warning of wider supply trouble, not just a dispute over paychecks.
Miners at the Kakanj Brown Coal Mine (RMU Kakanj) have called off their work stoppage, according to Abdel Fazlic, president of the RMU Kakanj union. The Kakanj miners received their August wages on time, and the Health Insurance Institute of Zenica-Doboj Canton has announced it will again process health insurance booklets for miners from Kakanj, Breza and Zenica.
“We got our pay, and now our second demand, the verification of health insurance booklets, has also been resolved,” said Fazlic, adding that the protest the union had planned for Monday, September 21, outside the Health Insurance Institute building is now off.
Why are Breza and Han Bila still on strike?
Unlike Kakanj, the strike continues at the Breza Brown Coal Mine and at the Abid Lolic Mine in Han Bila, near Travnik, because miners at those two sites still have not been paid for August. That alone is reason enough to keep the protest outside the Elektroprivreda Bosne i Hercegovine headquarters in Sarajevo on the calendar for Tuesday, September 22, at noon.
“The protest for September 22 still stands,” said Jasmin Telalovic, president of the RMU Breza union, warning that it will go ahead unless a solution for both mines’ wages is found before that date. The miners say they expect a large turnout, backed by workers from Bila and from every other mine under Elektroprivreda BiH. Their demand has not changed since the protest was first announced: payment of the August wages owed to Breza and Bila.
The Zenica Brown Coal Mine (RMU Zenica) is a separate case. It is being wound down and currently has no production, and the sources disagree on exactly how much back pay is owed there. Klix reports that Zenica’s workers have gone unpaid for May, June, July and August, four months in total, while Raport puts the figure at three overdue wages, for May, June and July. The RMU Zenica union attributes the delay to administrative snags in opening an account to receive World Bank funds, the channel the payment is expected to come through.
According to Klix, the RMU Zenica union has gone further than simply announcing a protest: if the back pay has not arrived by 3 p.m. on Tuesday, September 22, the union board has decided the mine will begin a hunger strike that same day at 3 p.m. Raport makes no mention of this step, leaving it unclear whether it is a decision the union sharpened later or a detail one of the two outlets simply left out.
Srpske Novine reported earlier on the planned protests in Zenica and Sarajevo, at the point when Bosnian miners first threatened a joint show of force outside Elektroprivreda BiH’s headquarters. The developments of September 20 show that some of that pressure has already paid off, with wages and health insurance paperwork sorted out in Kakanj, while the deadline for Breza, Bila and Zenica stays the same: Tuesday at noon outside the Sarajevo building, with a possible hunger strike in Zenica three hours later if the money still has not arrived.
The case of Bosnia’s coal mines shows how exposed the country’s energy sector is to payment delays and administrative bottlenecks, such as opening an account for World Bank funds, and how quickly a local labor dispute can turn into a supply question that reaches well beyond a single municipality or canton.
