doc_text: Thousands of miners in the northern Vorkuta region are expanding their strike and some are blocking coal shipments, the Soviet news media reported Friday.
  The miners are demanding the government fulfill promises of improved living and job conditions.
  Soviet officials have said the strikes could force fuel rationing during the Soviet Union's severe winter.
  Premier Nikolai I. Ryzhkov introduced a bill in parliament that would increase pension benefits by about 40 percent and upgrade benefits for coal miners, the official Tass news agency reported.
  The Komsomolskaya Pravda youth newspaper, in an article giving a sympathetic view of the workers condition's in the Arctic Cirle coal-mining districts, said many miners do not see daylight for months because of their underground work and the sun dips below the horizon in the winter.
  A regional court in Vorkuta ruled that the latest round of strikes is illegal but did not impose any penalties.
  The miners's unions said the decision will be appealed.
  Coal miners in the northern region and the Ukraine struck for two weeks this summer but returned to work in July after parliament passed a resolution promising reforms, including improved social and economic conditions.
  The miners say the government has renedged on its promises.
  The news media gave these accounts of the latest strikes: Workers at the Vorgashor mine in the Arctic Circle, the largest mine in the Vorkuta region, continued their strike for an eighth day, according to Tass.
  Komsomolskaya Pravda said night-shift workers walked out at three mines in Vorkuta and at another one the miners were still working but were preventing the coal from being shipped outside the region.
  In the Ukraine's Donetsk Coal Basin, the nation's major coal-producing area, miner representatives were discussing another strike.
  Tens of thousands of miners walked off the job for two hours Wednesday.
  Tass said that in Donetsk the miners gathered in front of the House of Unions to demand that the government set a deadline for implementing reforms.
summary_text: Miners in the northern Vorkuta region are expanding their strike and blocking coal shipments, demanding the government fulfill promises of improved living and job conditions.
  In the Arctic Circle coal-mining districts, miners do not see daylight for months because of their underground work and the sun dips below the horizon in winter.
  Coal miners in northern Ukraine struck for two weeks this summer but returned to work after a resolution was passed promising reforms.
  The miners say the government has reneged on its promises.
  A bill introduced by Premier Ryzhkov would increase pension benefits by 40% and upgrade miners' benefits.