Striking Polish coal miners block key rail line
The 11,000 employees of the four mines will be laid off, transferred or given early retirement
WARSAW (AFP) - Dozens of Polish coal miners blocked an important southern railway line for over two hours on Monday, days after going on strike over a government plan to close four mines.
The protesters blocked the tracks near the southern city of Katowice for around two and a half hours, according to Miroslaw Siemieniec, spokesman for the PKP state railways.
Meanwhile, "445 miners remain at the bottom of four mines" in a strike they began on Thursday, Tomasz Glogowski, spokesman for the main mining group Kompania Weglowa, told AFP.
Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz announced on Wednesday that the state-owned group would be restructured. The 11,000 employees of the four mines will be laid off, transferred or given early retirement.
Poland is almost entirely reliant on coal for electricity. In 2013, its miners extracted a total of 76.5 million tonnes.
But the country s industry has had to grapple with lower coal prices around the world following the global financial crisis, Europe s growing switch to renewable energy and competition from less expensive Russian coal.
