Zenica Miners' Third Night on Hunger Strike Over Wages

Six miners from the Rudnici mrkog uglja Zenica (RMU Zenica) coal mine are spending a third consecutive night on hunger strike, again sleeping in the Miners’ Hall in this Bosnian city. The protest is unfolding in neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina, but it fits a wider regional pattern in which mines nearing closure leave workers waiting months for their pay, a problem familiar to mining towns in Serbia as well.

The miners, members of the Trade Union Board of RMU Zenica, are striking over overdue wages. The mine owes them four months’ pay, and the single condition they have set for ending the strike is payment of at least two of those four wages.

Elvedin Alic, a member of the RMU Zenica Trade Union Board, told reporters in Zenica that the miners, tired as they are, remain in good health and have no intention of giving up the strike.

Alic said the union is waiting on a concrete signal from the federal government:

We expect the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s responsible minister, Vedran Lakic, to tell us today whether a commercial bank account has been opened to receive World Bank funds for our mine.

That, Alic said, would mark the first step toward resolving the dispute. The miners also expect a World Bank delegation to reach Zenica today, to agree with the mine’s management on the exact sum needed to cover the four overdue wages.

Alic described what the union expects from that meeting:

According to the announcements, the bank’s delegation should arrive in Zenica today and hold a meeting with our management, where they will discuss how much money is needed to pay our four wages. We hope for an agreement.

What Do the Miners Want From the Minister and the World Bank?

The union’s demand is specific and has two parts. First, that Minister Vedran Lakic confirm that a commercial bank account has been opened to receive the funds the World Bank has earmarked for the mine. Second, that the bank’s delegation, once in Zenica, agree with the mine’s management on the exact amount needed to cover the outstanding wages. Until both steps happen, the six miners will stay in the Miners’ Hall.

The Zenica mine has not produced coal for years. Of its former pits, only two remain, Raspotocje and Stara jama, and equipment is now being pulled out of them so the pits can be permanently sealed. Part of that equipment will be sold to the Kreka mine in Tuzla. Alongside the equipment removal, Zenica’s miners continue routine inspection work, as well as degassing and pumping water out of the pits.

The outcome of the talks with the World Bank delegation and Minister Lakic’s response are expected later today, and they will determine whether the six miners continue the hunger strike in the Miners’ Hall or whether the union decides its core condition, payment of at least two overdue wages, has been met.