The strike began September 25, five days after a gas explosion killed 41 miners at Mittal’s Lenin mine. Miners say the company has done little to improve safety conditions in the 11 years since it bought the giant Karmet complex from the government of Kazakhstan. The complex includes the country’s largest metal factory and the extensive coal and iron ore mines that feed it and employs some 55,000 workers.

Trade union leader Vyacheslav Sidorov told the press that coal miners returned to work October 5 at all eight of the struck mines. But he added that 300 workers continued to picket the main administrative building in the coal mining town of Shakhtinsk for another day to press for more demands.

Miners’ wages will increase under the new contract from an average of $350 to around $700 a month, according to press reports. Steel and other metalworkers employed at the same complex, who were threatening to join the strike, have reportedly agreed to a 20 percent increase. They currently earn a monthly average of $300.  
 
 
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