Northern Fleet hunger strike called off
Workers in the Northern Fleet’s construction unit in Severomorsk have called off a hunger strike after receiving promises from the Ministry of Defence that the salary debts will be repaid.
Twenty workers from construction unit started a hunger strike on September 27, demanding that the Russian Defence Ministry repaid its salary debts of 65 million RUB (app 1.6 million EUR). The strikers, 13 women and seven men, had not been paid the last eight months, BarentsObserver reported.
The strikers yesterday called off the hunger strike, after a delegation from Moscow led by Deputy Minister of Defence Kirill Nikiforov visited the strikers and promised that the debts would be repaid by October 6, web site Murmannews.ru reports.
The strikers earlier threatened to block the main road between Murmansk and Severomorsk, but this was also called off after the deputy minister’s visit. The strikers say that if they have not received any money by October 10, the actions will be resumed.
In 2008, forty workers in the same unit started a hunger strike demanding that they are paid by the ministry. Then, the ministry quickly transferred the 40 million RUB debts to the workers.
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