The prosecutor's men were suing fifteen pumping station workers but revoked the suit, June 2, after the dispute came to settlement, said our informant.
A suspension of underground water pumping threatened to flood a part of the mine and a neighbourhood in Chernogorsk, where the mine bases, assumed the plaintiffs. As things really were, there was no danger of flooding, with a mine rescue team substituting station strikers, Alexander Voitin, territorial Coal Miners' Union president, pointed out to Novosti on a previous occasion.
More than 170 of Yenisseiskaya miners were on hunger strike, May 17 into 28, for many months' wage arrears through the fault of previous mine proprietors. The republican government settled the dispute with an emergency target loan of six million and twenty thousand roubles, roughly US$200,000, out of the Khakass budget.
One of the strikers died in Chernogorsk yesterday, Alexander Atyukov, Yenisseiskaya labour leader, said to our reporter in Krasnoyarsk.
Valentina Shestakova, 55, had been working in the mine throughout her adult years. Coal-dressing shift manager was her latest job. With bad blood pressure problems, doctors sent her to hospital on several occasions during the strike. She rejoined her comrades every time after short treatment.
