Unions call for mining expansion that could spell destruction of communities
The minister of industry is weighing up an easing of limits on coal mining in north Bohemia, which will be disquieting news to locals who could lose their homes. But the main Czech trade union organisation is pushing for an even more radical move – abandoning the limits completely.
One plan would allow more digging by the ČSA open-pit mine. This would lead to the destruction of scores of homes in the 750-year-old village of Horní Jiřetín and the neighbouring Černice, which are around 10 kilometres from the German border.
The second of two alternatives the minister should present to the cabinet in March would involve less destructive new mining at a quarry in the area. This proposal has more support, iDnes.cz reported.
Now the Confederation of Trade Unions, the main union group in the Czech Republic, has entered the debate. At a news conference on Wednesday, the organisation called for all limits on mining in the area to be dropped – arguing that the move would safeguard jobs.
“The coal in the area of the ČSA mine is the best available in the Czech Republic. The coal is also important for all the other mines in north Bohemia, because it’s added to other, lower quality coal so that it can burn. So from that perspective, it is a genuinely strategic raw material.”
As for what his organisation’s demands would mean for locals who would lose their communities, Mr. Středula says if nothing else it would bring an end to over two decades of uncertainty.
“I think that what’s prepared will deliver a very interesting future for the people of Horní Jiřetín and Černice too. It’s necessary to look at the state those villages are in today. I’m not surprised those people are dissatisfied, because the worst thing is uncertainty. Who’d want to live somewhere where you don’t know what’s going to happen? Yes, it could be tough at first. But the effects would be huge – from employment to the strategic sustainability of Czech industry in general.”
Novinky.cz reported that the miners may even protest at a congress of Mr. Mládek’s Social Democrats in March if their calls are not heeded.
