On November 21st, in front of Kompania Weglowa (KW) headquarters, manifestation organized by Sierpien 80 trade union will start.
“Over 1,000 people will take part in the strike. We demanded wage increases but we did not get them, hence the protest”, Marceli Murawski, head of Sierpien 80 trade union in one of the mines said.
The trade union wants KW which employs 65,000 miners to increase their wages by 8 percent as early as this year.
“Next year, we want wage increase of 13.9 percent”, Dominik Kolorz, the head of mining Solidarnosc movement said.
Zwiazek Zawodowy Gornikow (ZZG), another mining trade union, joins the protests. On November 8th, it sent a letter to the Ministry of Economy and Donald Tusk.
“We haven’t received any reply yet”, Waclaw Czerkawski, ZZG deputy head said.
Zbigniew Madej, KW spokesman, said there would be no wage increases this year. The company cannot exceed the level of 4.8 percent in this respect. Otherwise it would lose public subsidies.
„Again trade unions want to show how strong they are when the government is changed in order to make it count with them. It has been happening for years”, Janusz Olszowski, CEO of the Mining Industry and Trade Chamber said.
Over 122,000 people are employed in mining industry. Their average wage exceeds PLN 4,000 (EUR 1,860.9).
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.272)