Question:
Romania's government wants to close unprofitable coal mines. The
miners' fiery leader, Miron
Cozma, has accused it of killing off the country's Communist-era
mining industry in the effort to make
it more efficient.
"Al Gore can't hide his shameful record in coal country. He
sees coal as an environmental problem, not an energy solution.
He has proposed to make coal the highest taxed energy source in
America, and now wants miners to believe he's their friend." As
vice president, Gore has broken his promises to tens of thousands
of West Virginia coal miners who cast their votes for Clinton-
Gore in 1992 and 1996. "I don't see how the working families of
West Virginia can ignore [Gore's] record and vote for him," Dick
Kimbler, president of the United Mine Worker Local 2935 in Logan
County, West Virginia, told the Charleston Daily Mail last month.
(Brian Bowling & Paul Owens, "Union Leader Blasts Endorsement of
Gore," Charleston Daily Mail, September 21, 2000)..."
Answer:
Leaders of Romania's ruling four-party coalition urged the miners to
end their protest and disregard
the calls of ``false leaders,'' a reference to Cozma.
An ultimatum urging the government to increase miners' salaries by 35
percent and reopen two mines
in the Jiu Valley expired Monday morning. The miners want $10,000 each
if they lose their jobs.
The miners, said to be cold and hungry, began to withdraw in panic
after units of special interior
ministry troops fired tear gas canisters at them along the road to
Bucharest. The two sides clashed
briefly, and some miners trampled one another, private television
station Antena 1 reported.
