AKIPRESS.COM - Some striking coal miners in Kazakhstan have agreed to return to the surface but hundreds remain underground, demanding wage increases, RFE/RL report says.
Authorities in the Karaganda region said on December 13 that 154 miners decided to come up overnight after the regional governor, Erlan Koshanov, met with them underground.
In a statement, the authorities also denied media reports that said police had detained several people over the strike.
On December 12, Kazakh Labor Minister Tamara Duisenova told reporters that 684 miners had been underground since December 11 at coal mines in the town of Shakhtinsk.
The regional governor's office said that representatives of the miners and their union have been in talks with the local authorities and officials of the mines' owner, ArcelorMittal Temirtau, a unit of global metals giant ArcelorMittal.