Albania: Miners protest demanding recognition of trade union, better salaries and working conditions
Spaç miners protest for working conditions and rights, 13 October 2025
For a week, around 70 employees of the copper mine in Spaç, Mirdita, have been boycotting work and are protesting working conditions.
The miners say they are on a general strike according to all the rules, notifying the company and institutions, while warning that they will go on a hunger strike if their demands are not met.
They have presented the Turkish concession company "Tete Albania Tunnel & Mining", which manages the mine in Spaç, with a list of demands that includes a 15-20% salary increase and recognition of the new union they created in August 2025.
According to the miners, wages have remained unchanged for years, while the price of copper on international markets has tripled, increasing the company's profits. But the starting point of the protest seems to have been the fact that the company has not recognized their union and has not approved a new collective agreement...
"We have also worked in non-normal conditions. If a fan is turned off due to power failure, smoke and gases are created there. There have been cases where another one has been damaged, and not in the line of duty, the contract stipulates that the employee should not work outside of what was contracted.", says Albert [Bushpren]...