The Qaraghandy region, the main coal basin of Kazakhstan is no stranger to such mining accidents. In 2004, a similar accident claimed the lives of 23 miners near the town of Shakhtinsk. But the latest explosion was the last drop that filled the cup of patience and spurred hundreds of miners into industrial action. On September 26, more than one thousand miners of Mittal Steel Temirtau and family members of the killed staged a massive protest rally in front of the local government office in Shakhtinsk. They were supported by steel workers of the company, who demanded a 40 per cent wage rise. Six other coal mines also joined the strikers. Local authorities this time did not dare to ban the rallies.

However, Lakshmi Mittal, who flew in directly from London to express his condolences to the families of dead miners and talk to the mayor of Qaraghandy Nurlan Nigmatullin promising to cover burial costs, said it was still premature to discuss the rise of miners’ wages. They work 12-hours shifts for 40,000 tenge per month ($320). Some parliament members expressed their solidarity with the miners, but there is little they can do to exert pressure on the company. Cabinet members seem to be in the same helpless position. The head of the Emergency Ministry of Kazakhstan, Shalbay Kulmakhanov, was quick to conclude that the explosion of methane gas was caused by the violation of safety regulations by miners themselves.

But experts believe that Mittal Steel Temirtau company, which makes huge profits from selling the coal of Qaraghandy basin using cheap labor, does next to nothing to replace the outdated equipment and raise safety standards. In 2005, the average wage of company workers was not above 44,600 tenge. In January this year under the pressure from local trade unions, wages were increased by 10 per cent. Over the last nine years, wages in Mittal Steel Temirtau were raised by 55 percent, while the inflation rate in the same period reached 70 percent. A group of parliament members sent a letter to Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov, which states that some local workers of Mittal Steel Temirtau get less than $300 monthly for twelve hours shift work, while hired workers from India receive more than $3000.

It is likely that, as some observers suspect, Mittal Steel Temirtau enjoys covert support from some influential officials in the top echelons of power who lobby the interests of foreign companies. President Nursultan Nazarbayev recently launched a veritable war on corruption in government ranks. At a session of the Security Council, he publicly named greedy officials, but his criticism was leveled almost exclusively at the heads of national companies. It was revealed that the monthly salary of the chairman of Kazakh telecom company was $365,000, not counting annual bonuses exceeding $2 million. Other heads of national companies were accused of pocketing hundreds of thousands of unearned dollars.

In this situation it is hard to expect that corruption-prone government officials will be able to restore the rule of law in a country with largely impoverished population. Miners of Mittal Steel Temirtau can protest against the discrimination by the foreign company as long as they hope to get some concessions from the company. But at the end they will have no other choice than to return to the coal mines for low wages, as they have no other jobs to help them feed their family.