Chiatura miners end hunger strike

The miners on hunger strike in Chiatura have ended the strike. They stated on Wednesday that a ‘trusted individual’ informed them that halting the hunger strike would help the case of four fellow miners who were arrested for reportedly attacking the head of the mining company.

The miners, who announced their decision on social media, did not specify who informed them that ending the hunger strike would help their detained colleagues.

Four miners were arrested on 29 April for reportedly attacking the head of the mining company after he allegedly called them a ‘herd of cattle’.

Giorgi Neparidze, Merab Saralidze, Tengiz Gvelesiani, and Achiko Chumburidze were initially detained on charges of causing intentional minor injury.

Saralidze and Neparidze were later charged with organising and participating in group violence, an offence that carries a prison sentence of six to nine years. Chumburidze and Gvelesiani, meanwhile, have been accused of participating in a group offence, which is punishable by four to six years in prison.

The protest began in Chiatura at the end of February with a series of demands directed at the employer, including the restoration of underground operations in the mines — work that the manganese mining company Georgian Manganese had suspended in October, citing ‘financial unprofitability’.

The miners stated that the suspension of operations was causing serious financial hardship for the town, whose residents rely primarily on mining as their source of income — Georgian Manganese is the largest employer in the town.

On 22 April, the Chiatura Management Company (CMC), which runs the mines on behalf of Georgian Manganese, said that production would resume only if there were a ‘reorganisation’, which miners expect would leave many of them unemployed. Almost a week after the announcement, a group of miners launched a hunger strike that continued until this Wednesday.

Two days before the miners announced the end of their hunger strike, on Monday, the CMC announced the dismissal of employees with whom, according to the company, it was ‘no longer possible to continue cooperation for various reasons’.

As for those who ‘continued their employment relations’ with the company following the reorganisation, CMC promised that the gradual payment of salary arrears for March and April would begin ‘within the next 2–3 weeks’.

On Thursday, miner Tariel Mikatsadze told local media that they had not yet received comprehensive answers from the company on several issues, including salaries. However, he stated that if the detained miners are released, the protests will be called off under the guarantee that work on the remaining demands will continue ‘in a mode of dialogue’.

Police detain four protesting miners from Georgian mining town Chiatura

The day before, five miners from Chiatura stated they had begun a hunger strike to draw the attention of the authorities.

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