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Sofia - Hundreds of miners from Bulgarian coal giant Maritza East Mines rallied in the southeastern town of Radnevo Saturday as their week-long strike cut electricity exports, national radio reported.
The miners gathered outside the state company's headquarters demanding higher pay and better work conditions and shouting calls for chief executive Evgeny Stoykov and Energy Minister Traicho Traikov to resign, the radio said.
The open-ended protest, which has stopped coal production at the company's three open-pit mines for a week now, prompted the government to halt electricity exports at 1:00 am Saturday (2300 GMT Friday).
Bulgaria is a major electricity exporter to Greece, Serbia, Macedonia and Turkey, shipping abroad 10.5 billion kilowatt hours last year.
But it had to cut exports to guarantee domestic consumption as the strike forced all four coal-fired plants in the Maritza East complex to lower their capacity, Deputy Energy Minister Delyan Dobrev told the radio.
The four plants, which provide 32 percent of all electricity used in the country, have almost no other coal supplies and their stocks will only hold for another two weeks, Dobrev said.
The miners' strike has already caused losses of 8.0 million leva (4.0 million euros, $5.3 million), according to the Maritza East Mines.
Management was scheduled to hold another round of talks with the miners Saturday over their demands for pay rises in line with increased coal production.
A total of 33 million tonnes of coal were extracted at the mines last year, surpassing a 27-million-tonne target.
But the company says it already distributed bonuses last year and cannot offer more money to the over 7,000 workers in times of crisis.
