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9 March, 2009
Following a failed mediation session on 4 March, some 65,000 Polish coal miners are poised to strike state run and operated Kompania Weglowa (KW), Europe’s largest coal producer. Miners, forcefully united behind the country’s three main mining unions – ICEM affiliate NSZZ Solidarność, Kadra, and the Polish Miners’ Trade Union – have been denied a fair wage proposal for 2009.
Mediated talks will resume tomorrow, 10 March, but if no resolve occurs, Kompania Weglowa will face a two-hour warning strike on 12 March. If that doesn’t force a change of stance by the company’s board, a full strike at all of KW’s 16 mines will then commence.
Reportedly, the company’s directors are offering a wage hike of 1.5%, while the unions are seeking 6%. In last week’s mediated talks, the unions revised their proposal to delay the 6% increase from January to March. Miners are seeking increases in daily subsidies as well.
Also locked in wage talks are 40,000 miners at two other state-owned coal servicing and production companies, Jastrzebska Spolka Weglowa (JSW) and Katowicki Holding Weglowy. Both companies are seeking to impose a wage freeze on miners this year.
Talks with the same unions at JSW will continue on 11 March. But the unions consider KW the lead company, despite the managing board’s reluctance to engage in earnest dialogue. In fact, the dispute has become exasperating because management has issued conflicting economic data.
In January, the KW board boasted of significant profits from 2008, but countered that recently by informing the unions about losses. Meanwhile, KW’s board members received a 6.9% salary increase for 2009 as part of a procedure in all Ministry of State Treasury enterprises, further inflaming the dispute.
KW’s coal production is 47 million tonnes annually, and it holds a 50% market share inside Poland’s healthy coal-driven economy.