President Mikhail S. Gorbachev said Wednesday that the wave of strikes by thousands of coal miners and other workers could spread to the railroad industry and seriously damage the country's economic reforms.
In the Soviet Union's worst labor unrest since the 1920s, strikes have now shut down more than 200 mines and factories in the country's two top coal-producing regions, official reports said.A lawmaker from the Ukraine said the number of striking mines in his region had nearly tripled between Tuesday and Wednesday, from 20 to 58.
In a report to the Supreme Soviet, or parliament, Gorbachev said the strikes already had meant a 1 million-ton drop in coal production, and "now there are reports of calls to railroad workers to join the strike as of Aug. 1.
"Such a development of events poses a threat to the implementation of plans projected by the policy of perestroika," he said. Perestroika refers to Gorbachev's reforms to restructure the economy.
Miners began walking out July 11 in Siberia's Kuzetsk coal region. Workers in other industries in the region swiftly followed suit. On Saturday, miners in the Ukraine's Donetsk coal basin also began walking off the jobs.
The miners are demanding more local control over their industry as well as higher wages and better living conditions.
Gorbachev said he and Premier Nikolai I. Ryzhkov sent a telegram to miners in the Ukraine assuring them that any concessions granted to Siberian miners would apply to other mining regions as well.
He blamed some of the miners' discontent on what he called "anti-socialist" elements but said he understood their basic demands.
Following Gorbachev to the podium, legislator Anatoly Saunin from the Donetsk region said the number of striking mines there was up Wednesday to 58.
"You mustn't hold a knife to the throat" of the government, Saunin told the striking miners.