15 February 2012, 10:00
Sailors from Astrakhan went on a hunger strike in the sea port of Vladivostok because of unpaid wages
The crew of the Russian vessel “Rustika” standing in the sea-port of Vladivostok went on a hunger strike because of a two-month backpay. The arrears of wages makes 50 thousand dollars. 11 members of “Rustika” crew are taking part in the hunger strike. The vessel is standing near the mooring of “Dalzavod”.
“The people were left by the ship-owner and have no money even to buy food. The arrears of wages makes $ 50 thousand”, Peter Osichansky, inspector of International federation of transport workers (IFTW) in Vladivostok reported.
The participants of the hunger strike demand to pay off the debt and send them back to Astrakhan. The ship-owner strongly objects to help the sailors, “Interfax” reports.
“I talked to the ship-owner who is from Moscow and tried to convince him to give money to the sailors at least on food for the situation not to be so dramatic. He replied that he had already transferred the money to the crewing company”, the inspector of IFTW said.
There have been no comments from the ship-owner who owes money to the sailors yet.
Osichansky added that the sailors appealed to all the instances possible: receptions of the bodies of power of the country and Public prosecutor’s office.
Meanwhile, officials of shipping Public prosecutor’s office said that they had not received any statements from the sailors yet and experts of the supervisory body organized an inspection on the information in mass media, “Primorye-24” reports.
