a217  1125  16 Jun 90
AM-Soviet-Miners, Bjt,0815
Notes From Underground: Bitter Miners Show Dangers of Their Life
An AP Extra
By BRYAN BRUMLEY
Associated Press Writer
    MAKEYEVKA, U.S.S.R (AP) - The miner scrambled on all fours through
mud along Shaft No. 6 in the Red Star mine, cursing as he knocked
loose a support.
    His helmet lamp bobbed in the gloom as he jammed the metal jack back
under rough-cut ceiling beams in the low tunnel in the heart of the
Donetsk Basin, the largest Soviet coal field.
    The miners more than a quarter-mile beneath Makeyevka were smeared
with black mud, their clothes soaked with water, their lungs
tormented with sickness and their hearts full of bitterness toward
the Communist Party and government.
    A half-dozen miners lay down their tools to speak to an American
correspondent who had crawled 500 feet along a low tunnel to talk
with them and see their working conditions.
    ''This is how we work,'' said a miner named Alexander, lying on his
side, using a broad-bladed shovel to ladle lumps of hard coal onto a
conveyer belt, driven by chains that roared a few inches from his
nose.
    A co-worker named Sergei lifted a drill and long bit to show how he
chipped away coal. He was stooped over, unable to sit upright in the
cramped tunnel. Both miners identified themselves only by first
names.
    Nine miles to the west of the Red Star lode, the First Congress of
Soviet Miners passed resolutions of no confidence in the party and
threatened to strike July 11 if Prime Minister Nikolai I. Ryzhkov's
government does not resign.
    Another resolution expressed no confidence in the Communist Party,
presenting President Mikhail S. Gorbachev - also the party general
Secretary - with one of his toughest tests yet in maintaining popular
support.
    Last summer, half of the nation's 1 million miners sent a similar
shock through the Soviet Union by striking for safer working
conditions, better housing and increased deliveries of meat and soap.
Miners also demanded a greater voice in setting prices and production
quotas.
    The miners say the government hasn't delivered, and they have lost
faith in the party.
    The miners meeting decided to reconvene in August to form the first
independent nationally organized union since the days of Lenin.
    Down in the Red Star mine, the workers said new unions were needed.
    ''None of us are party members down here,'' Sergei said. ''I don't
know whether there will be a strike, but I'll take part if there is
one.''
    ''Food is the most important thing. Meat,'' Alexander said.
    As the reporter crawled away, a pneumatic hose burst underneath him,
hissing filled the air and a miner rushed to fix it.
    ''Don't worry. It's nothing,'' said Igor N. Shapovalov, deputy chief
engineer at the mine.
    Shapovalov, 29, says he'll remain in the Communist Party despite its
unpopularity among the miners and the likelihood that it will split
at a party meeting next month.
    Despite his loyalty, Shapovalov said he supported the strike last
year, and he acknowledges that conditions in the mines are poor.
    ''Imagine. They sit in that water for six hours a day, in that
moisture. They get sick all the time,'' said Shapovalov.
    During the tour, he pointed out an improperly prepared cable used to
haul trains along mine tunnels.
    ''This should have a sheath,'' he said gesturing at an exposed cable
loop that had not yet begun to fray.
    ''And this should have a clasp,'' he said, pointing at the knot that
completed the loop. ''This could give way while miners were in the
train, and they could get hurt.''
    He also demonstrated a gas meter, designed to detect dangerous
concentrations of methane.
    Pockets of methane explode. Within the last two weeks, gas
explosions have killed six miners in Donetsk and 12 in the Kuznetsk
Coal Basin in western Siberia.
    In the last five months, 33 Soviet miners have perished, the
newspaper Trud reported Saturday. The death toll in both 1988 and
1989 was 93.
    On Friday, John J. Banovic, international secretary-treasurer of the
United Mines Workers of America, told the miners' meeting that his
union would help them found an independent union and work to improve
conditions.
    Listening to a description of the Red Star mine, he said: ''It
sounds like late 18th century or early 19th century mining to me.
We'd close down a mine like that straight away.''
    Shapovalov, a blond 6-footer, acknowledged his mine might close if
the government moves from a planned to a market economy.
    ''If this mine closes, I'll find other work. We defeated the
fascists. We can live through this,'' he said, evoking memories of
World War II, when the choices facing Soviet workers seemed much
simpler.
    
 
AP-NY-06-16-90 1409EDT
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a228  1358  15 Jun 90
AM-Soviet-Miners, Bjt,0855
Miners Threaten National Coal Strike if Ryzhkov Does Not Resign
By BRYAN BRUMLEY
Associated Press Writer
    DONETSK, U.S.S.R (AP) - Coal miners from across the country rejected
the Communist Party leadership Friday and threatened a nationwide
strike in July if the government of Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov
does not resign.
    ''It would be a political strike,'' said Bulat Mukazhanov, the
chairman of the First Congress of Soviet Miners and a representative
of miners from Karaganda in Kazakhstan.
    The miners, in closing their five-day congress, also announced plans
to create a new labor union independent of the party and the
government. It demanded the party relinquish control over the
government and state enterprises, and give up its vast inventory of
property.
    The moves intensified the political crisis facing Soviet President
and Communist Party leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who is already
dealing with secessionist republics, ethnic violence and a crumbling
economy.
    Gorbachev could be the first Soviet leader since Vladimir Lenin to
face an independent, nationally organized labor union.
    The miners did not directly challenged Gorbachev, and their position
left the way open for Gorbachev to steer the party toward more
radical reform and force the resignation of Ryzhkov, who has been
left to bear responsibility for the unpopular economic program.
    The miners' resolution called for the resignation of the
''government,'' a reference to Ryzhkov and his Cabinet. Gorbachev is
at the beginning of a five-year term, but the prime minister can be
replaced by parliament at any time.
    Mukazhanov said it was not clear how many of the nation's 1 million
coal miners would heed the strike call, set for July 11.
    Political strikes were outlawed last year, but the Soviet government
has been unable to enforce the ban. Economic strikes are legal only
after a period of negotiations.
    Last summer, about 500,000 miners walked out in the Soviet Union's
first nationwide strike, paralyzing heavy industry and raising fears
of whole cities freezing. But the winter was warm.
    Angered by the government's failure to fulfill promises it made to
end that strike, the miners formed a committee to draft bylaws for a
new independent union to be founded at a second meeting, scheduled
for Aug. 15-16 in Moscow.
    The current meeting of the congress, which included delegates from
all 712 coal mines in the country, said the Communist Party's failure
to reform made the prospect of mass resignations from its ranks
understandable.
    It suggested nationalizing the Communist Party's huge holdings,
which include buildings, publishing houses and newspapers,
automobiles and bank accounts. The property comes from dues from 18
million members and the Soviet Union's history of mingling government
and party spending.
    ''The leadership of the Communist Party and the party bureaucracy
are losing their prestige,'' read a congress resolution, passed on a
vote of 308-116 at the conclusion of the congress in Donetsk, the
center of the largest Soviet coal region.
    ''The Communist Party of the Soviet Union claims that it is the
party of the working class, its vanguard. We are workers, but we do
not regard the party in its present form as our party,'' it said.
''We demand that the Communist Party be deprived immediately of its
privileged position in our enterprises.''
    ''We think that in conditions of a multiparty system, the question
of nationalizing the Soviet Communist Party's property, which was
created by the people, must be decided.''
    Earlier this year, the Communist Party agreed to relinquish its
constitutionally guaranteed monopoly on power. But so far, it has not
surrendured its institutionalized commanding role in the state-run
businesses that make up the overwhelming bulk of the Soviet economy.
    Some fledgling parties have appeared in the Soviet Union, and
radicals within the Communist Party are expected to split from the
national organization during a party congress scheduled to begin on
July 2.
    The action at the miners' congress was the first time a national
organization with such massive support has challenged Communist Party
authority so decisively.
    The miners said in a separate resolution that they supported a more
rapid transition to a market economy than proposed by Prime Minister
Ryzhkov, even though it might mean that some unprofitable mines would
be closed and miners thrown out of work.
    Ryzhkov's plan, presented to the Supreme Soviet legislature last
month and defended by Gorbachev on national television, called for
the price of bread to triple on July 1 and the cost of most other
food to double at the beginning of next year.
    The Supreme Soviet has delayed the unpopular bread price increase
for at least two months, and told the government to come back in the
fall with more detailed plans for economic reform.
    The miners at the congress also heard warm words of support on
Friday from two American unionists, Richard Wilson of the AFL-CIO,
and John J. Banovic of the United Mine Workers of America.
    ''A free society requires independent trade unions, requires the
right of association, free of government and party control. It
requires that workers make their own decisions,'' Wilson said to
hearty applause from the Soviet miners.
    ''If we can help, we offer our hands in friendship,'' he said.
    
 
AP-NY-06-15-90 1639EDT
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