BY BRIAN TAYLOR

On December 3 hundreds of thousands of coal miners throughout Russia went on strike to demand back wages, which have not been paid for months. The miners were joined by teachers and other workers in many regions. Union leaders estimate more than two-thirds of the country's 560,000 miners went out. According to one Associated Press report, the strike reached from the "Far East to central Russia ... idling at least 180 mines," and leaving Russian president Boris Yeltsin "concerned." Coal makes up 80 percent of Russia's heating fuel, and half the fuel used in electrical plants.

In St. Petersburg, 150 nuclear plant workers waged a day-long warning strike, coinciding with the miners' action. Retired workers, who haven't received their pension checks, blocked the Moscow-St. Petersburg railway near Tver. Government figures estimate some $8 billion is owed in back wages to public and private sector workers.  
 
 
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