More than 200
construction workers have gone on strike at the Vostochny
Cosmodrome in Russia's Far East, the Interfax news agency reported
Friday.
The workers refused
to come to work today because of unpaid wages. One worker said
that management of their employer, Spetsdorstroi, cited financial problems at higher levels as the reason for the delay in payments.
“I have worked at
the launch site since 2012, and we have never had such delays in our
organization. They gave us only 41 percent of May's wages, and said they
could only give us an advance of 5000 rubles ($75), on July 30,”
a worker said, the Vedomosti newspaper reported.
A total of 215 workers signed a statement giving notice that they would cease work Friday.
They refuse to return to work until they are paid the outstanding
wages for May and June.
Early this month, a
group of workers at the cosmodrome employed by a different company
went on strike for the same reason, though returned to work the day
after a meeting with management.
In April, the former
director of one construction company responsible for Vostochny was
sentenced to three years in a labor camp for embezzlement of company
funds.
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