
Eight fired as the Zangezur mine strike marks one week
The two meetings of the sides have not resulted in an agreement.
The striking employees of Armenia’s Zangezur Copper and Molybdenum Combine have met with the company’s management but failed to reach an agreement. The employees vowed to continue their strike with ‘greater public pressure’.
The meeting took place on Tuesday.
Vahe Mkhitaryan, a striking employee who had participated in the meeting, told Factor that the talks lasted about two hours, calling them ‘fairly serious and constructive’, despite not having resulted in a settlement.
‘A number of work issues were discussed, the reasons that led to this outcome. There was a constructive approach on both sides, but there is no change in general positions’, said Mkhitaryan.
Mkhitaryan has also told RFE/RL that the meeting took place with the mine’s ‘top management’ and that the sides had agreed to maintain communications in case of new proposals, revisions, or changes in their respective positions. He said that the employees planned to continue their strike, escalating it into the ‘next step’ — greater public pressure.
The strike began on 31 January in demand of better working conditions and pay. The company and its trade union have claimed the strike was held ‘in violation of the labour legislation’ and the strikers’ demands were ‘unrealistic’, which the strikers do not agree with.
According to Mkhitaryan, the employees demand a ‘dignified raise’, while the management’s proposal ‘does not solve the problem’, which the strikers ‘tried to substantiate with rational arguments’ during the meeting.
‘And also taking into account the fact that the last [salary] review took place seven years ago, it seems to me that our demand is more than realistic’, Mkhitaryan said.
The strikers previously said that they demand up to 40% raise.
‘Specifically, those earning less than ֏300,000 ($755) are asking for a 40% raise, those earning between ֏300,000 ($755) and ֏500,000 ($1,258) want a 30% raise, and those making between ֏500,000 ($1,258) and ֏1 million ($2,516) are requesting a 20% increase’, Epress reported.
The strikers also claimed that the trade union had chosen ‘a wrong position’ and that they had informed it about their intention to hold the strike.
‘We submitted an application to them a month ago, there was a petition’, Andri Arakelyan told Factor on Tuesday, adding that they were told that their demands would be met by January.
Arakelyan said that their demands were not met by January, and that they were told to wait until March, pushing the employees to go on strike.
The spokesperson of the Zangzur Combine, Arayik Margaryan, claimed that it was the company’s management which had taken the initiative on the pay increase proposal, telling Factor that they aimed to ‘eliminate this manifestation of injustice’ in wage gaps inside the company.
‘This reform was developed and has been implemented since last year, but our colleagues did not like this approach’, Margaryan stated, claiming that the mine was implementing a 3%–20% salary increase for all employees at different rates.
‘No increase is planned to the extent they mentioned, the leadership is not willing to make concessions’, Margaryan said.
Margaryan warned against the economic, security, and environmental consequences of the strike, telling RFE/RL that the latter concerned them ‘the most at the moment’. He did not specify what kind of environmental consequences could result from the strike.
He also noted that the company has not produced any products as a result of the strikes, but also said it was not clear how many of the employees joined the strike, since the strikers ‘have blocked the road and even if other employees wanted to, they could not get to work’.
On Sunday, the mine’s employees voted on their demands with a single yes or no question: ‘do you support the strike demanding a wage increase and improved working conditions?’. The following day, the results revealed that 2,448 out of the mine’s 4,600 employees were in favour of the demand.
The Zangezur Combine is the largest tax-paying company in Armenia, with the Armenian government owning 21.8% of the total shares — 15% of the shares were granted to the government in 2021 by Industrial Company, while another 6.8% were granted by AMP Holding in 2022.
The Armenian government did not express its position on the strikes as of Wednesday afternoon.
RFE/RL reported that another meeting between the sides has been scheduled for Wednesday evening.