Budryk Update

Yesterday's talks between unionist representing the striking workers of Budryk and the Board of JSW mining holding company ended with no agreement.

The unionists said that they have to go back to square one with the negotiations. Miners in Budryk earn less than in other JSW controlled mines. Originally, their demands were to get raises so that the workers would receive pay equal to the average salary in JSW. Most recently, they have been negotiating to achieve equal pay levels with the Krupinski mine which, before Budryk joined, had the lowest levels of pay in the JSW group. However, the director of JSW has claimed that the information on wages in the Krupinski mine is not true. The management of JSW has been very unclear about wages in other mines. Therefore the unionists went back to demanding that the earnings of workers in Budryk be raised to the average in JSW.

Part of the problem seems to be that there are too many discrepancies in wages throughout JSW. The management admits this and has suggested calling a group to study what the wages actually are and creating a computerized data base of wages. They propose that this work would last at least two months and, naturally, they would expect the strikers to go back to work during this period.

Calculation of average wages presumably would not take into account the large number of contract workers in JSW mines who are in the employ of various outsourcing firms.

35 miners are still on hunger strike in Budryk and 220 people are occupying the mine.