September 1991 Mineriad was a political action and physical confrontation between the miners of the Jiu Valley and the Romanian authorities, that led to the resignation of Prime Minister Petre Roman's government.

[1] Prices were to be liberalized in three stages and the subsidies for food, which compensated workers' relatively low wages, were cut, while the privatization laws brought the specter of unemployment.

[2] The reforms led to severe inflation (prices grew by over 200%[2]), a large increase in unemployment (from virtually zero in December 1989 to over one million—11% of the urban workers—in 1991[2]) and food shortages,[3] leading to a growing popular discontent.

[3] President Iliescu responded with an address on public radio, in which he made an appeal for law and order and for "rational behavior and patriotic feeling".

[1] Ion Iliescu eventually met with a representative group of miners and told them that all their demands would be, but riots continued for the rest of the day.

[7] Adrian Severin, deputy Prime Minister, argued that it was a "crypto-Communist coup d'état" and that these people belonged to the class which had privileges during the previous communist regime.

[8] In 1999, the High Court of Cassation and Justice of Romania found Miron Cozma, the leader of the miners, guilty and sentenced him to 18 years in prison.