RUSSIAN COALMINERS’ UNION POSTPONES NATIONWIDE STRIKE.

Leaders of Russia’s coalworkers’ union decided over the weekend not to go ahead with today’s threatened nationwide strike. (NTV, August 23) Union leaders called off the strike after meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and receiving promises that all wage arrears would be paid to miners by the end of this month. But they stressed that they were only postponing the strike, and that miners reserved their right to strike if the government failed to fulfill its promises.

In the country as a whole, wage arrears remain the major source of worker unrest. Over a thousand doctors in Kyzyl, capital of the Republic of Tuva on Russia’s border with Mongolia, went on indefinite strike today, demanding three months’ unpaid wages and higher state support for health care. (Itar-Tass, August 26) Russia’s umbrella Federation of Independent Trade Unions (FITU) is working out a consolidated plan of action which is to be unveiled on October 1. Under this plan, strikes will not be confined to individual industries but may coordinated to cover several industries simultaneously in order to achieve maximum impact. (Interfax, August 25)

Moscow, Constantinople Seek Compromise on Estonian Orthodox Churches.