Miners’ protests intensifying

The head of the Solidarity trade union, Piotr Duda, has said that if an agreement is not reached between the government and unions by next Tuesday, protests will expand nationwide.

“We have no intention of paying the price for the mistakes of the current government coalition,” Duda told TVN24 news channel. He added that all the miners want is to work an honest job and pay income tax.

Duda explained that unions are ready to come to a compromise. He said that at the same time, until the government pulls out all the stops to strike a deal with miners, other sectors could become the targets of protests – including rail workers, who would strike in an act of solidarity.

“I appeal to the Members of Parliament from the Silesia region that if they vote against the restructuring bill [when it is presented] on Thursday or Friday, that they go down to the mines and look these miners in the eye that their places of work are being closed.”

The government’s restructuring plans foresee the closing of four mines in the Silesia region in southern Poland. The mines, part of the state-owned Kompania Weglowa, have racked up millions of zloty in debt, and are constantly in the red.

One additional mine, Piekary, will be transferred to another state-controlled company, Weglokoks. At present Kompania Weglowa owns 14 mines in the region, and government experts say that it does not have enough liquidity to pay wages this month. If the restructuring plan is not enforced, the company will be have no option but to declare bankruptcy over the coming weeks.

“The cash deficit [of Kompania Weglowa] is around PLN 2.4 billion,” said Wojciech Kowalczyk, he government representative in charge of the restructuring of the mining industry told Polish Radio. (rg)