Today, the management of Kompania Weglowa (KW), Europe’s biggest mining company, will for the last time try to reach agreement with trade unions. The latter say they will strike on December 17th in 16 mines. Dominik Kolorz, head of Solidarnosc trade union, believes the strike is inevitable. Moreover, on December 19th, decision will be made to launch general strike in the group employing 63,000 people.
“Several days of strike may cause bankruptcy of the company”, Andrzej Stanislaw Barczak from the University of Economics in Katowice, and member of KW supervisory board said.
Trade unions want their wages to be increased by 6.9 percent as early as this year. The management is limited to 4.8 percent increase. Otherwise, it will be accused of doing wrong to the company. It is estimated that one day of strike will cost the company over PLN 43m (EUR 11.9m). In addition, the company will lose credibility and won’t get credits, won’t be able to issue bonds worth PLN 500m as planned. At the end of October, KW had PLN 4bn of debts. The management had earlier said that KW would have a small income this year. If it meets the demands of its employees, it will have PLN 180m of loss this and PLN 280m of loss next year. The company spends PLN 4bn for wages every year.
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.278)