Mustafa Talha Öztürk
25 October 2023•Update: 25 October 2023
BELGRADE, Serbia
Workers at the Trepca mine in Kosovo went on a hunger strike to demand their salaries be paid on time and better working conditions.
About 300 mine workers in the lead-zinc mine of the state company in the Stanterg village of Mitrovica, began the hunger strike Oct. 24.
Workers, who are approximately 700 meters (2,297 feet) underground, are demanding the board of directors be dismissed and health insurance be provided.
President of the Trepca Miners' Union Ibrahim Januzi said workers will not end the strike until their demands are met.
"Our demands are; salary payments from the 6th to the 10th of each working month, dismissal of the board of directors, health insurance and the best working conditions,'' said Januzi.
Riza Baliu, a worker who fell ill during the strike last night and was hospitalized, said he would join his colleagues and go against doctors' advice not to continue with the strike.
"I am still not well, but I will go down (to the mine)," Baliu told reporters.
Some of the workers were weak and had health problems. Ambulance and health care workers are waiting at the mine’s entrance, if needed.
The Kosovo government allocated 1,675,000 euros ($1.77 million) to Trepca on Oct. 23 to be used to pay salaries.
Founded by a private British mining company at the beginning of the 20th century, Trepça was among the largest companies in the former Yugoslavia and among the largest lead-zinc and silver ore mines in Europe, with approximately 20,000 employees.
The state-owned company was divided between Albanians and Serbs after the Kosovo War and the country's independence process, but it faces economic difficulties at times due to a lack of investment and falling production.
