Underground strikes in Silesian mines (Poland)
Miners protesting the planned closure of mines
Polish miners of the Jastrzebska Coal Company (JSW) during the protest in front of the company headquarters in Jastrzębie-Zdrój, Poland, 09 February 2015. ©EPA/ANDRZEJ GRYGIEL
In 2015-16, facing the national government’s plans to close down unprofitable coal mines in Silesia, a wave of strikes, both underground and on the surface, was organised by regional miners’ trade unions in several mines. Workers stopped working and demanded to keep mines open or, failing that, to for jobs to be relocated to different mines. A second, shorter wave of underground and surface strikes started in the autumn of 2020 in Silesian mines with similar demands.
Further reading
Notes from Poland (2020): Polish miners begin underground strikes to push government to support struggling coal industry. Read here.
Funding
The CINTRAN project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 884539. The sole responsibility for the content of this website lies with the authors and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of CINEA or other EU agencies or bodies.