Armenian miners' strike enters 24th day as talks drag on at Akhtala plant

A strike by miners at Armenia’s Akhtala Mining and Processing Plant continued for a 24th day on Saturday, with negotiations between the workers and the management ongoing but still failing to produce an agreement, according to a strike supporter. The employees demand higher wages and better working conditions.

Sasun Vardumyan told Panorama.am that there had been no tangible progress so far, despite several rounds of talks with the plant’s management in recent days.

“People remain gathered near the first checkpoint. The strike continues,” Vardumyan said, adding that both sides have recently shown greater willingness to compromise. “If that were not the case, there would not be so many negotiations.”

Discussions have focused mainly on technical issues such as ore tonnage and cubic meter calculations, which directly affect wages and other financial conditions. However, the sides have yet to reach common ground.

While talks continue, the company has sought to recruit new workers and has also let some employees go. Vardumyan said the plant recently brought in workers of Indian nationality, but they ultimately did not stay on the job.

“They went into the mine, saw where they would have to work and left,” he said. “They are not used to this kind of work. It is heavy labor inside the mine.”

According to Vardumyan, the company has instead hired five or six workers from the Sotk gold mine in the Vardenis community, who have been working at Akhtala for about 10 days. He also said the plant had terminated contracts with five non-permanent workers after their expiration.

The strike involves 52 drilling workers, whom Vardumyan described as critical to the entire production process.

“They are at the very beginning of production,” he said. “They drill, blast and extract the ore. If these workers are not producing ore, the other 450 employees are effectively left without work.”

He said the miners’ demands were justified, citing dangerous working conditions deep underground and the company’s capacity to improve pay and safety. The workers initially demanded a 20% wage increase, but have since lowered their expectations.

“They are now saying: if you can’t raise wages by 20%, at least say you will raise them by 5%,” Vardumyan said. “There is not even such an offer. That is the main reason there is still no agreement.”