Dodaj nową odpowiedź

New developments in occupational strike and negotiations with JSW.

1. Today, Jan. 2, there were supposed to be talks between the strikers and JSW. JSW cancelled the strikes and said they have nothing to offer the miners.
2. On Dec. 31, the management of Budryk informed the state security agency and public prosecutors' office of "illegal acts" in Budryk and
claimed that the workers were causing considerable economic damage to
the State Treasury.
3. The management has repeatedly said that the strike is illegal and
wants it repressed by state organs.
4. The miners decided to take the occupation underground. A group of
miners went underground but then the manager somehow cut the elevators and is physically preventing access to other miners. He is also preventing the people who are responsible for safety (i.e. measuring methane levels) from going down to the mines, which is a clear violation of the law on safety in mines. The director of the mine has stated that he thinks the miners could be up to acts of sabotage, that's why he shut down the elevators. This also means that the striking miners who went down cannot easily come back up, unless the director agrees. This will obviously be a point of tension and could lead to a violent struggle quite shortly.

Another things should be added, although not directly related to
Budryk. Unions are threatening a general strike in another mining
group – Kompania Węglowa. The situation there shows a little something about the politics of mining in Poland.

First, Kompania Węglowa announced that it has signed new contracts for coal supply in 2008 where the price of coal is raised up to 20%. On average, they get about 11% more for coal than in 2007. Workers want a wage increase and argue that since there is more money being paid for coal, the company can afford it.

The negotiations are being carried out of course at the state level.
So there is some "social dialog" bureaucrats involved. The social
dialog bureaucrats however refused to be involved with any
negotiations with Budryk since they've also declared the Budryk strike illegal.

Budryk management is spreading false information about the strike. At
least 4 unions voted to go on strike but management is claiming that
the workers didn't really agree to the strike and even tried to
pretend that most workers don't support the strike. The "social
dialog" people are clearly on management's side and have no interest
in investigating the situation. Apparently also safety officials don't want to get involved in the current situation where the elevator was blocked. So the Budryk miners are up against a collaboration of forces that want to repress them.

Thanks to people who already sent a protest letter.