KRASNOYARSK, May 21 (RIA Novosti) - Eleven women formerly employed as stewardesses with the bankrupt Siberian airline KrasAir have been on a hunger strike for a week in protest at overdue wages, one of the women told RIA Novosti on Thursday.
"We started our hunger strike a week ago and we still haven't got our money," Irina Tretyakova said.
The stewardesses, based in the central-west Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, say they are owed eight months' wages. Fourteen women began the hunger strike, but two have been hospitalized and one has had to quit due to family issues.
KrasAir, part of the crisis-hit AirUnion alliance, ceased operations last October over a liquidity crisis. The company has outstanding debts in wage arrears estimated at 340 million rubles ($10 million).
"We are not asking for anything impossible or unrealistic," Tretyakova said. "They took away our livelihoods, took away our future... they could at least give us our money."
A local government source told RIA Novosti however that 60 million rubles ($1 million) in wage arrears had been paid into the bankrupt company's account.
"If they can not agree on how to distribute the money... there is nothing we can do to influence the situation," the source said.
"Over the past two days various sources have said that the money has arrived. But the banks are very clear on this and are telling us 'there is no money, nothing has been paid into your accounts,'" Tretyakova commented.
Unpaid salaries were a hallmark of the Yeltsin years, with many employees at both state and private companies going unpaid for months, and even years, on end.
