Dozens of miners from the Lupeni mining operation, in the Jiu Valley, continue the spontaneous protest started yesterday and refuse to come out of the underground, according to Radio România Actualități. They are dissatisfied with the delay of almost 10 days with which they would receive their salaries, although the Muntele union has signed a protocol in this regard with the administration of the Hunedoara energy complex.

“About 80 miners were stuck underground in Lupeni, while currently, the activity in the other mines is carried out under normal conditions. Hunedoara Energy Complex is facing financial problems, there is no liquidity, but according to the protocol signed by the representatives of the Government in the territory and by those of the Mountain Union, people will receive their salary rights on February 26,” Cristian Roşu, the special administrator from the Hunedoara Energy Complex, told adevarul.ro.

The special administrator, Cristian Roşu, and the general manager Samuel Dioane went to the Lupeni mine to convince the miners to give up the underground protest.

On the other hand, miners’ union leaders will meet to identify the legal levers through which the wage process could be accelerated. The activity at the other mines in the Jiu Valley was carried out, this morning, in normal conditions, but the workers from the Mintia Thermal Power Plant, which operates with coal from the Jiu Valley, warned that the unit could be stopped due to lack of coal, because there are no winter stocks.

The salaries of the miners from the Jiu Valley should have been paid on the 15th of the month, but the CEH management announced that they will be paid by February 26th.

The company was left without half of the necessary funds for salaries, given that since January 1 CEH no longer benefits from the sums of money from system services and state aid for Mine Lonea.