Early in the morning on January 31 a vast number of Kremikovtzi workers gathered at the square in front of Sofia's St Alexander Nevski cathedral to protest against the current management of the troubled steel mill, Focus news agency reported.
Over 50 Kremikovtzi company buses full of people blocked the traffic in the area around the Levski monument, heading for St Alexander Nevski's square.
Lyudmil Pavlov, chairman of the trade union at Kremikovtzi, claimed the management owed employees 11 million leva in unpaid wages since December 2007, with corresponding food stamps and other social payments also delayed.
The protesters held posters with slogans reading “Pramod Mittal does not create, but steals and destroys”, “Stop to the Kremikovtzi catastrophe”, “Stanishev, if you do not remove Pramod, we will remove you”, “The mayor is lying. Kremikovtzi is not the biggest Sofia polluter”, among others.
Vassil Yanachkov, of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB), asked the Prosecutor's Office to investigate owner Pramod Mittal's doings, Focus news agency reported. “We won't let Mittal play around with the fate of so many people,” he said.
The protesters took their rally to the Economy and Energy Ministry building, where an estimated 4000 people demanded a meeting with Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov before 10am.
Dimitrov agreed to see CITUB vice president Valentin Nikiforov, KT Podkrepa trade union president Konstantin Trenchev, along with other representatives of the two labour unions and of the Kremikovtzi workers.
He reiterated the Cabinet's commitment to keep Bulgaria's biggest steelworks working, even though Mittal refused to sell the mill, but was also unwilling to pump more funds into its operations. Dimitrov also said the Public Internal Financial Control Agency (PIFCA) should probe Kremikovzti's records to determine the steel mill's financial health.
Dimitrov was to meet Pramod Mittal and Kremikovtzi CEO Alexander Tomov later in the day on January 31, Focus news agency said.
The steelworks' employees continued their protest at the Government building.
