More than 100 miners on a hunger strike for nine days in the Turkish capital over unpaid wages ended their protest Tuesday after reaching an agreement with their employer, their union said.
“Most of their comrades have received their salaries. … We are ending our action as of today,” Gökay Çakır, head of the miners’ union, said after a meeting at the interior ministry.
The 110 lignite miners had made a nine-day, 180-kilometer (112-mile) trek on foot from the central province of Eskişehir to Ankara.
They were demanding the payment of outstanding wages and redundancy pay from their employer, Doruk Mining.
The miners were detained for 14 hours the day after launching their hunger strike, as they sought a meeting with the energy ministry.
“We are hungry,” several had written in a marker on their bodies.
On Monday the miners, who had set up at a park in Ankara for a week, were pushed back by police and sprayed with tear gas as they tried to head to the ministry.
© Agence France-Presse