...A strike began at Georgian Manganese Holding’s mine on October 15, and unrest quickly spread across the country. The 3,700 miners at the mine in the...town of Chiatura are demanding better working conditions and a doubling of their current...monthly salaries. Operating in shafts up to 2.5 kilometers beneath the earth’s surface, the miners rely on equipment that largely dates back to the Brezhnev era...Executives at Georgian Manganese, a majority-Ukrainian-owned company, did not respond to interview requests...While the [Georgian labour] code nominally protects the right to assembly and protest, workers have long complained they are threatened at the job if they attempt to organize strikes.