The employees of the Lupeni mine refuse
\nto go into the mines. Radio Romania’s correspondent in the Jiu Valley says the
\nroots of the protest lie in the unprecedented crisis the Hunedoara Energy
\nComplex has been going through. Not even basic stuff needed in the underground
\ncan be purchased anymore, because of the difficult financial problems facing
\nthe complex. Miners fear they might lose their jobs and would like to receive a
\nconcrete program regarding either the
\ncontinuation of their mining activities or the closing down of the mines. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
We have been lied to all the time, either about insolvency or
\nabout getting awards, and this can no longer continue. We have been humiliated
\nto an incredible extent. If the activity can’t continue, we are going home. We
\nare neither the first nor the last to lose their jobs. Let’s establish once for
\nall what should be done, but we should be all aware of what’s going on. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The protesters
\ncall for the resignation of the current management, whom they blame for
\nincompetence. They are particularly discontent with the conduct of the deputy
\ndirector Petru Nica, a
\nformer trade union leader until the autumn of 2016, whom they accuse of trying
\nto intimidate the miners and of threatening them with lay offs if they do not
\nresume their activity. The protests staged by the trade unions come shortly
\nafter the European Commission approved the allotment of approximately 100
\nmillion Euro by the Romanian state for the closing down of the Lupeni mine and of another loss making
\ncoal mine in the Jiu Valley, Lonea. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
More than half of the money will be spent on workers, who will receive
\nseverance payment and will benefit from professional reconversion programs, as
\nwell as on a number of activities needed in the underground, to rehabilitate
\nthe region and to return the land to agriculture. This is only an episode in
\nthe long agony of the Romanian mining industry. Enjoying a privileged status
\nduring the communist dictatorship, for both pragmatic and ideological reasons,
\nthe mining industry assures the vitality of the energy-consuming economy. A
\npolluting and loss making sector, the mining industry started to lose ground in
\nthe mid 1990’s, when the first mines were closed down. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Social tension has again emerged in the Jiu Valley, the largest coal-mining region in Romania.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":71468,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[32731,31115,28990],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-71467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-jiu-valley","tag-mining","tag-protests"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n