Strikes In Kazakhstan's Restive Zhanaozen Widen Amid Wage, Conditions Complaints", 22 July 2021

Workers at another company in the southwestern Kazakh town of Zhanaozen have launched a strike, demanding a salary increase amid a series of labor issues in the restive town.

More than 100 employees at the Kazpromtekh company started the strike on July 22, making it the 11th company to be hit with labor strife in recent days.

Kazpromtekh provides transportation services to the Ozenmunaigaz oil company, one of the major oil operators in the Central Asian country's energy-rich west.

One of the strikers at Kazpromtekh, Beknur Zhumaqaliev, told RFE/RL that the company's workers wanted their salaries to be increased by 50 percent.

"Our salaries have been the same for the last 10 years," Zhumaqaliev said.

...The Kazakh authorities have been very sensitive to any dissent or protests in the volatile town, where police fatally shot at least 16 people while repressing protests by oil workers in December 2011.