Orbiting Cosmonauts, Controllers Demand Pay Increase
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MOSCOW — A cargo ship linked up with the Mir orbiting space station Monday as ground controllers and cosmonauts pressured the Energia space agency for higher pay. Cosmonauts now make about $6 a month.
“Our Work Is Cosmic, Our Pay Should Be Cosmic,” read a banner hanging from the wall of the mission control center during the docking of the cargo ship M-11 and the Mir station. The scene was broadcast on television.
The controllers are supporting a demand for more pay by the three cosmonauts now in orbit, who on Saturday threatened to strike for a pay hike. The cosmonauts on the Mir have been there since October.
“Our renowned cosmonauts today are prepared to join the ranks of picketers and strikers,” state-run television said Saturday. “One of the most prestigious jobs on Earth has become one of the lowest-paid.”
Cosmonauts and some of the ground controllers work for Energia, a Russian state-owned company that emerged from the Soviet space industry as the leading space company.
Meanwhile, workers at a shipping company in the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk went on strike for higher salaries, Russian television said.
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