Georgian miners in the country’s western city of Chiatura, who have been on strike for 14 days demanding increase in wages and improved working conditions, on the weekend demanded the dismissal of Andriy Barabakh, who in early June was appointed as the director of Magharoeli LLC, a contractor company to the employer Georgian Manganese. 

The owner of 100 percent of shares in the Georgian Manganese - a leading domestic producer and exporter of high-quality ferroalloys and manganese ore that operates Zestafoni Ferroalloys Plant, Chiatura Manganese Ore Mine, Vartsikhe 2005 Hydro Power Plant, and Feromedi Clinic - is owned by Georgian - American Alloys registered in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, with the controlling package in the hands of the Ukrainian billionaire Ihor Kolomoyskyi.

“A traitorous Ukrainian [Barabakh]  arrived, he refused to fight in his country, he left it, he wants to do business here and make money in Georgia. He wants to make us work as slaves”, the miners said, with two of them sewing their mouths and eyes shut in protests last week. 

Only the four percent of the Georgian Manganese is owned by a Georgian group of shareholders, with a businessman Giorgi Kapanadze, reportedly affiliated with the current Georgian Dream authorities. 

The Ministry of Environment Protection and Natural Resources of Georgia in 2017 requested the appointment of a special manager in Georgian Manganese on the pretext of avoiding an ecological disaster in Chiatura. The court accepted the motion. Before a special manager was appointed, there were three such intermediary companies, with the number increased to more than 20 since 2017, domestic environmental NGOs said. 

"It was expected that the special manager would make the activities of the plant transparent. In fact, the opposite has happened. Many such companies have emerged over the years. Today, we are in a situation where neither the employees, nor the affected people, nor the interested parties know who has what obligations before the law and who bears what responsibility," Nino Gujaraidze, executive director of Green Alternative, told Mtris Ambebi domestic media.

After the appointment of a special manager, the company's activities are no longer inspected  by a state agency. According to the estimates of independent experts, the damage to the environment has at least doubled and the situation is critical.

On Monday, the Georgian Manganese said it was ready to accept a five percent increase in salaries instead of demanded 40 percent and the previous, 12-hour shift, receiving a backlash from miners. 

The miners claimed the offer was “insulting” and pledged to continue protests and hunger strikes in capital Tbilisi.