Polish Briefing: Trade unions ask the PM about the plan to liquidate the mining industry and coal imports

What goes on in Poland on the 11th of August.

Trade unions ask the PM about the plan to liquidate the mining industry and coal imports

The National Commission of the Free Trade Union “Sierpień 80” asked in an open letter to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to provide reasons for the plan to close mines in Poland while importing hard coal.

Sierpień 80 states that during the rule of the Law and Justice (PiS), coal imports to Poland reach disgraceful records. – Moreover, the import of electricity is also breaking records. Nothing to brag about. According to the union, it is not true that coal mined in Poland is more expensive than the imported one. – The analyzes of Dr. Dawid Piekarz from the Staszic Institute show that, on average, from 2010 to the end of 2019, the prices of Polish coal were lower by about PLN 42 per ton than the costs of foreign raw materials – argues the trade union. The letter reads that this is an incoherent policy, since Russian gas is bad, but Russian coal is good.

However, the social side informs that in the second half of July 2020, one of the energy companies brought almost 300,000 tonnes of coal to Poland by sea (approx. 200 thousand from Russia and 100 thousand from Colombia). – These ships entered our ports exactly at the same time when a drastic plan of devastation and liquidation of the Polish hard coal mining in Silesia was being prepared in the privacy of the Ministry of State Assets. This plan assumed the almost immediate closure of the three-section combined mine Ruda (ie the mines: “Pokój”, “Halemba”, “Bielszowice”) and the mine “Wujek” in Katowice. In total, there are about 10,000 families in all these mines who will lose their livelihoods, which means the collapse of the entire city with nearly 140,000 inhabitants, we read in the letter to the prime minister.