Salaries of $120 a month lead Kalingrad air traffic controllers to mount hunger strike in protest

Published: 6/17/1999

A group of 15 air traffic controllers at Kaliningrad airport has called off a hunger strike, just hours after it began. A union spokesman confirmed that, on June 11th 1999, the striking air traffic controllers agreed to return to work, after the administration of the Russian enclave - wedged between Lithuania, Poland and the Baltic Sea – promised to renegotiate their salaries and working conditions. Mr Alexander Kruglyakov, a member of the Kaliningrad Air Traffic Controllers Union, said that the workers intend either to return to the hunger strike, or to take other industrial action, if no progress is made by June 16th 1999. He added that: “Our average salary is only about $120 a month - on the brink of survival level here - and we want it raised". Administration officials were not available to comment.

Article ID: 597