Tkibuli Coal Mines
Tkibuli miners allege political dismissals amid company’s ‘reorganisation’
Up to 100 miners were dismissed in what the company has claimed is part of a retraining initiative.
Tkibuli Coal Mines
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Georgia
One dead and eight injured in Tkibuli mine explosion
One miner was killed and eight more have been injured in an explosion in the Tkibuli coal mine in central Georgia. The cause of the explosion in the Mindeli mine shaft, at around 23:00 on Sunday, is still not known. The injured have been transported to Tbilisi, where three remain in serious condition in intensive care. Doctors say that one of those injured is in critical condition. Guga Kashibadze, head of the burns centre at the Khechinashvili University Clinic, told reporters that the
Feature Stories
‘We all have bronchitis’ — the blackened lungs of Georgia’s coal miners
The owners of the coal mines in the Georgian mining town of Tkibuli deny that any employees have job-related illnesses. The miners themselves tell a different story. On 21 July 2020, Amiran Bochorishvili, a 65-year-old miner in Tkibuli, marched into the office of the director of the Mindeli Mine and cut open his wrist. After 40 years working 300 metres underground, the mining company, Saknakhshiri, attempted to transfer Bochorishvili to surface duties, cutting his salary from around ₾900 ($
Georgia
Tkibuli miner self-harms in director’s office over salary cut
A coal miner in the Georgian town of Tkibuli has purposefully injured himself in the mine’s director’s office in protest over a reduction in his salary. On Tuesday, Amiran Bochorishvili cut his wrists in the office of the town’s Mindeli Mine. Following the incident, Bochorishvili told journalists that as the only breadwinner in his family, was unhappy that his pay had been reduced from ₾900 ($290) per month to ₾300 ($97) after the management moved him to a new position. He was transferred afte
Georgia
Tkibuli miners demand safety guarantees after surviving accident ‘by pure luck’
A group of coal miners at the Mindeli and Dzidziguri shafts in the west-Georgian town of Tkibuli refused to work on Wednesday citing dangerous workplace conditions. The main catalyst for the stoppage, according to them, was a ‘near-death’ incident involving 22 workers at 00:40 on Monday morning. Imereti-based news site Top News cited miner Gaga Isakadze as saying that a lift bringing 22 miners to the surface malfunctioned, violently dropping several times. ‘The miners tried to calm each
Georgia
Georgian miners in Tkibuli demand safety promises be fulfilled
Several dozen coal miners in the western Georgian town of Tkibuli staged a protest against Steel International Trade Company, their employer, demanding concrete information about the safety of the mine shafts. Several workers had been poisoned in a mine shaft the previous week. This latest protest, on 16 March, followed the poisoning of five workers in a mine shaft on 9 March. Three workers were hospitalised. Ruslan Butskhrikidze, the leader of the initiative group, told OC Media, that he
Feature Stories
Stuck between a rock and a hard place — the miners of Tkibuli
When an explosion in the Mindeli mine in the west-Georgian town of Tkibuli killed four and injured six, coal mining in the town briefly shut down. In the interim, some miners have sought work abroad, while others stayed to work for new owners. In either case, the miners found little respite. Khvicha Gabunia, 32, is an economist by training. Ten years ago, after failing to find a job in his field, he started working in the Mindeli mine — the only operating mine in Tkibuli, and its largest em
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