A group of 12 miners of DTEK Sverdlovantracit's Chervony Partyzan coalmine (Luhansk region) have seized the office of the coalmine's director on Thursday in order to put forward their demands to the owner of DTEK energy holding, Rinat Akhmetov, and Luhansk region Governor Volodymyr Prystiuk.

Chairman of the Independent Trade Union of Sverdlovsk Kostiantyn Ilchenko reported the seizure to Interfax-Ukraine.

"Today, stealing from miners' families is not enough for the authorities and DTEK any more – now they decided to put an end to the coal industry of Ukraine by devastating coalmines they don't need via reorganizing them," reads the trade union's statement.

The miners that seized the coalmine director's office demand that DTEK Sverdlovantracit's head cancel an instruction to change the enterprise's form of organization. According to them, the implementation of the instruction may result in mass layoffs.

In addition, the miners demand annual bonuses for DTEK Sverdlovantracit's employees. They also want the actual time during which they work every day – nine to ten and a half hours – to count as labor hours.

The protesters also demand that the company introduce tariff rates and wages in compliance with the law on increase of prestige of miners' work.

The miners also demand that the Independent Trade Union of Sverdlovsk be declared legal, a union agreement be signed between primary organizations, and that positions be returned to all of the dismissed members of the trade union.

If the abovementioned demands are ignored, the miners vowed to address Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych with political demands, as well as ask the PACE, OSCE and the International Labor Organization for assistance.

The miners remained in the director's office as of 1130.

"They made an attempt to make us leave the office, they called the police, but we stayed in the office. We don't know what will happen next, some strangers are wandering around. But we are ready for anything," Ilchenko said.

DTEK was created in 2005 to manage the energy assets of Rinat Akhmetov's System Capital Management (SCM, Donetsk). DTEK is a vertically integrated company involved in the production and enrichment of coal and the generation and sale of electricity.

DTEK's portfolio of coal assets includes 31 mines and 12 coal preparation plants in Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine and in Russia's Rostov region.