The battle for Poland's coal industry is heating up.
Thousands of Polish coal miners have protested against government plans to close four pits. It's an attempt to restructure a loss-making industry. In the latest demonstrations on Friday, Miners blocked off more than 10 major highways in the southern industrial area of Silesia. And a march in Warsaw earlier this month ended in some of the worst rioting Poland has seen in recent years. So why are Polish miners so desperate?
Silesia, Poland's coal basin is located in the south of the country. It's a region full of natural resources, predominantly coal. During the 50 years of the communist rule in Poland, the coal-mining sector was a strategic branch of the national industry. Coal miners had many privileges - cheap flats, special shops and extra bonuses. A regular miner was able to provide full financial support for his wife, children, and of course himself. Now the coal mining sector is a loss-making one and currently 4 collieries in the region, employing over 8 and a half thousand people, are facing the prospect of closure. Little wonder, the miners find it difficult to come to terms with such a vision.
"We have to fight to save our coalmine, our workplaces - we need money to give our children something to eat. Otherwise where will we go? Other coalmines will not employ us. We do not believe the government. They are lying all the time. Words - that's what they can give us."
The government guarantees workplaces for the miners from those mines in other collieries, but the miners simply do not believe these assurances. Other options include earlier retirement and providing alternative employment opportunities. Grzegorz Cimochowski - financial analyst who works for a large company in Katowice, the capital of the region - sees at least 3 ways out.
"We first have to retrain the workforce, to teach those people that mining is not the only thing they can do. Secondly, we have to improve the infrastructure of the region. Last, but not least, local and national governments have to provide financial incentives to the businessmen who are to start businesses there, for example tax cuts or preferential credit lines."
What the government is doing to solve the situation is negotiating a loan from the World Bank for the restructuring of the Polish mining sector. The Bank's vice-president Johanes Lynn explains understands the miners fear yet suggests looking at the issue from a long-run perspective.
"The problem is that in the long run their jobs aren't safe and indeed the miners aren't safe. This, to me, is even more important, because they go down every day into the mines and if you have financially unsound mining company it will not provide the kind of safety miners need."
The anger among the people of Silesia is nothing new. It has been growing for years. It seems that everyone is tired - people who live in an atmosphere of constant fear of losing his or her jobs. The politicans who cannot solve the problem, the trade unions who are looking for more and more radical forms of protest and the miners who seem not to trust the state. The difficult art of reaching compromise is still ahead of workers as well as the government.
