Hundreds of Romanian miners protest underground after not receiving salaries

More than 350 miners from the Paroseni and Uricani mines in Romania’s Valea Jiului mining region stopped work and blocked themselves underground on Monday night, unhappy with the fact that they haven’t received their salaries on time. Today, a delegation made of miners and union leaders will go to talk with the management of the National Company for Mines Closures, Huila union leader Laszlo Domokos told local News.ro. On Monday night, the 41 miners working the third shift at the Paroseni mine blocked themselves underground because they haven’t received the first part of their salaries, which was supposed to be paid to them on November 29. “The Paroseni mine, like the Uricani mine, is owned by the National Company for Mines Closures, and the other ones, namely Lonea, Livezeni, Lupeni, and Vulcan belong to Hunedoara Energy Complex. There are two mines in Vulcan, namely Vulcan and Paroseni. The miners working at Vulcan mine received their money, but those from Paroseni didn’t,” said Laszlo Domokos. In addition to asking the money they should have received on November 29, the miners also demand guarantees that there will be no payment delays in the next two months. EC approves Romania’s EUR 99 mln support for closing 2 coal mines Romania’s Government pays EUR 3.7 mln to 3,000 miners who will be laid off Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com