About 350 air traffic controllers in Moscow have been refusing their salaries for more than two months to protest low wages and outdated equipment, Soviet media reported.
Initially, all 550 controllers at Moscow's central flight control installation were involved in the protest, but 200 gave up because, as the Tass news agency said, "it is not easy to live without getting any salary."The official news agency, citing an article in Literaturnaya Gazeta, said Wednesday that the controllers want the government to modernize control towers and buy new radar equipment.
It said they want to know what is being done with $56 million in hard currency they earn the government annually by directing foreign aircraft to Soviet airports.