13 miners at death’s door in the hunger strike underground. Why is Europe hushing?

Concessionary company plays hardball that is bound to turn deadly             By Alfred Kola

Today is the 19th day of the miners’ hunger strike in Albania and there is no settlement in sight. The miners have demanded a rise of 20-40% in their wages and prompt improvement of working conditions and safety measures. While thirteen people are fighting with death three thousand meters below ground, the concessionary company, ACR, continues its “war of nerves” with the labor union and miners over trivial things that are warming up the residents of the mining small town of Bulqiza and the rest of the country. The long-debated venue of negotiation table was finally settled. Representatives of miners, none of them from the union, met on Friday, August 12, in Tirana. After three hours of talks no agreement was reached and the strike will go on. While every hour is precious, the company has chosen to play hardball in the hope that in face of death the miners will give in and stop the strike.  Now, this game the company is playing seems bound to turn deadly. The Albanian Ministry of Economy and Energetics called upon the police to intervene and get the miners forcefully out, arguing that conditions of the mine are allegedly deteriorating and the miners lives are in jeopardy. But AMEE failed to mention the hazards of miners’ death by starvation.  Government’s alignment with the concessionary company is not a secret anymore, but the surprise is that no European authority has spoken about the hunger strike and the grave humanitarian situation in the immiserated town in northern Albania.