Georgian Manganese company has expressed willingness to pay miners one month’s wages and conditionally resume underground operations, according to Beka Peradze, head of the Labour Inspection Service.
This follows a meeting of a tripartite working group established to address the increasingly tense situation in Chiatura’s mining company, where operations have been disrupted for over 45 days. “The company presented its position on plans to resume underground operations. There will be a detailed review of this plan regarding the prospects for resumption.
The company is ready to resume work under certain conditions and pay one month’s salary. All other complex details will be analyzed within the working group framework and made known to the public soon,” Peradze stated after the meeting in Chiatura. Meanwhile, trade union leader Irakli Petriashvili defended the unions’ role in the dispute during an appearance on Georgian Public Broadcaster’s Topic of the Day program, pushing back against criticism from miners.
“When an operating company announces its departure, we sued the entity that filed for bankruptcy, not Nelson Mandela. The fact that the company is paying 60% of the second month’s salary is thanks to the trade unions,” Petriashvili claimed, highlighting the unions’ efforts to maintain workers’ income.
He further explained that few companies in Georgia have collective agreements negotiated by unions that guarantee workers 60% of their wages when not working, as during the COVID-19 period.
“This is the achievement of trade unions. We took a loan at 9% interest to cover the first month’s salaries for workers. Can you think of many organizations that would do this? The trade union itself took out a loan,” he added.
Petriashvili addressed two main problems that the unions helped resolve through the tripartite commission and government involvement: unpaid obligations to trade unions (including wages and insurance issues) and preventing Chiatura’s economic collapse if the company departed.
“If the company left and this group of miners, who were here before me succeeded, whose goal would that serve? The company wanted to leave, these people urged the company to leave, and they wanted the trade union to leave as well,” Petriashvili said.
He warned that without proper oversight, mining operations would revert to dangerous, unregulated practices similar to those in Tkibuli, where miners died in pairs due to poor safety standards.
When asked about the miners’ demands for nationalization, Petriashvili was dismissive: “They cite examples like Bolivia and Venezuela. You know well what the standard of living is like in Bolivia and Venezuela. Do we want salaries transported by aeroplanes? Chiatura doesn’t even have an airport for planes to land. This happens in Venezuela as a result of nationalization.”
Opposing this view, miner Tariel Mikatsadze expressed profound distrust toward both the company and trade unions.”We have very little trust in the information provided about the tripartite commission because there’s a third party there, representing workers, that won’t bring any long-term benefits to Chiatura and employees,” he said regarding the company’s offer.
Mikatsadze characterized the company’s change of position as a “tactical retreat” after previously announcing on March 7 the closure of underground operations.
“They officially wrote to us, ‘We bid you farewell, stay well, I’m closing underground production, transferring the entire enterprise to open-pit mining, will employ up to 2,000 people there, and I’m not interested in the mines.’ This was Mr Temur Khomelia’s statement, and now something has happened, we think, under pressure,” he explained.
He emphasized that the main issue remains unchanged: “The most important factor is that instead of 3,620 people, they need only 2,000 workers even if they restore the mines. Chiatura is already a mono-industrial city with employment problems. They talk about alternative employment solutions, but these won’t be ready for years, and many people will be left on the street without income.”
While acknowledging that administrative staff positions could be eliminated, Mikatsadze insisted that actual mine workers should keep their jobs: “Of course, we agree there are inflated staff positions in the management tier – directors, their directors, and people who don’t even know where they work, where they’re formally employed, who don’t actually work but receive salaries of GEL 20,000 or more. Such personnel should be removed, but as for those employed in the mines and production, such workers should not be dismissed.”
Mikatsadze detailed miners’ distrust of trade unions based on bitter experiences dating back to 2019, when promises regarding environmental improvements and equipment upgrades were never fulfilled.
During a major strike in June 2023, he claimed the unions only got involved after workers were literally “gasping for breath” on the 13th or 14th day of a hunger strike, with people being carried away on stretchers.
He further alleged that miners are effectively forced to remain union members despite their distrust: “The trade unions’ charter and collective agreement are set up so that if miners don’t recognize the unions, they’ll lose the inflation-adjusted GEL 250 and other benefits that were won through struggle. United Trade Unions benefit from using our name, but they don’t have our trust. Simply put, miners have no other choice – if they’re not union members, they’ll lose at least GEL 300-400 per month in wages.”
Looking ahead, Mikatsadze announced a “fifth grand rally” planned for Chiatura, where future action plans would be revealed. “I want to ask everyone to come in as large numbers as possible. We have an unconditional plan that we’ve been following for 45 days and will never abandon, even at the cost of our lives. Until these processes are resolved, until the government gets involved, until negotiations happen and the problems of both the affected population and employees are resolved, not a single grain of manganese will leave Chiatura – even if it costs me my life personally,” he declared.
