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23 March, 2009
Miners at Europe’s largest coal company, Poland’s Kompania Weglowa, are now taking measures that could lead to an early April strike following a 19 March mediation session. Those talks produced little movement in efforts to resolve 2009 wage negotiations.
The state-run company’s 65,000 miners at 16 colleries are led by ICEM affiliates NSZZ Solidarność and Kadra, and the Polish Miners’ Trade Union, with some nine other smaller unions also involved. Miners engaged in a two-hour warning strike at Kompania Weglowa on 12 March. But during the 19 March talks, management’s 4.6% wage offer still fell several percentage points short of miners’ demands.
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. At JSW, a formal labour dispute was declared on 19 March.
A strike is also a distinct possibility at Poland’s copper company, KGHM, after management also proposed a 2009 wage freeze. This dispute, also led by Solidarność, is fueled by management’s decision to ignore recommendations made by workers’ representatives on the company’s supervisory board in a 2009-2018 business plan.
At Kompania Weglowa, management has threatened to lay off 3,000 workers if it was forced to meet the unions’ wage demands. The two-hour warning strike 11 days ago saw the company’s coal output drop by 8,000 metric tonnes. Kompania Weglowa’s annual production of coal is 47 million tonnes annually.