The article considers the issue of workers’ insecurity in Russian private mining enterprises. The authors reflect on the problem of nominal property and ultimate beneficiaries. A case of JSC Razrez Inskoy in Belovo (Kemerovo Oblast) is described. The authors focus on the fact that in spite of a significant number of trade unions miners have to directly address the state when problems occur. The mining and metallurgical complex of the Russian Federation occupies one of the leading places in the country's economy in terms of industry and foreign currency revenues. The official statistical fact that the mining and metallurgical complex determines the rating of the most profitable companies in Siberia is discussed in the paper. The authors emphasize that eenterprises of the mining and metallurgical complex are city-forming. The authors consider that solution of the key economic problem of nominal or ultimate beneficiaries’ is critically important for trade unions to be able to solve a wide range of modern problems in the frameworks of sustainable development.