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25 April, 2011
A 24-hour warning strike that started a week ago by Solidarnosc representing the majority of 22,000 workers at Poland’s Jastrzębska Spolka Weglowa (JSW) in Silesian coal mines has produced negotiations with the state-run company. Those talks started last Thursday and will continue tomorrow, 26 April, in Katowice, along with the provincial Committee on Social Dialogue.
Miners took industrial action in resistance to the government’s plan to list JSW, Europe’s largest coking coal producer, on the stock exchange. They are also seeking a 10% wage increase from a state company that has seen hefty earnings, posting net profits of €300 million, or US$422 million in 2010. The government, meanwhile, is anxious to proceed with the listing on 30 June because of current high raw materials costs for steel production.
The government is making the case that listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange will improve JSW’s position in the marketplace because of greater access to funding for mine development and clean coal technology. Government officials were critical of the industrial action, saying that such social action – despite being legal – devalues the company.
The state is offering free-of-charge shares to JSW staff as it intends to float 30% of JSW, while retaining 51%. However, the door has been left open to future sales of shares.
The warning strike and blockade of coal exiting five JSW mines on 8 April came ten days after miners voted by 95% in a referendum for industrial action. A total of 78.5% of the 22,000 miners participated in the vote.
If JSW is privatised, the mineworkers’ unions seek a 10-year guarantee of employment. Because of the current negotiations, unions cancelled another strike that was to occur tomorrow. The one-day warning strike last week is said to have cost the company PLN 30 million, or €7.6 million (US$11 million).
JSW is the first of the major coal producers in Poland that the government seeks to privatise. In the middle of 2012, it intends to sell Katowicki Holding Weglowy (KHW), a thermal coal producer employing 19,200 workers. Unions there have already agreed to a redundancy scheme that will see about 1,000 miners take early retirement by the end of next year. The government intends to combine KHW with the state-run export company Weglokoks in the 2012 public listing.