Polish miners stage blockades in new protest against pit closures
WARSAW, Poland (AP)
Some 2,000 coal miners angered by planned pit closures blocked roads in southern Poland on Friday in an attempt to step up pressure on the government, joined by railroad workers who blocked tracks to the capital, Warsaw.
Miners paralyzed traffic at 16 locations around the mining center of Katowice, police said, backing up vehicles for several hundred meters (yards) in some places.
It was the fourth protest by miners in four weeks against the planned closures, part of government efforts to scale down the heavily subsidized industry.
The protesters, who waved red-and-white Solidarity flags, dispersed peacefully after three hours, police said. In support of the miners, railroad workers blocked tracks for an hour.
President Aleksander Kwasniewski, in a radio interview, urged the government to hear the miners' grievances. But he also said ``important economic factors'' mean the mines must be closed.
The closure of the four mines around the city of Bytom is planned for next year. It would mean the loss of 8,500 jobs in an area where the unemployment rate already is close to 30 percent, 12 percentage points higher than the national average.
The government has promised jobs at other mines, early retirement, alternative jobs or compensation, but the miners are skeptical of the offers.
``People have homes, families here and don't want to leave in search of new jobs,'' said Piotr Luberta, 41, a mine rescue worker blocking a road near Katowice. ``And there are no jobs elsewhere, with such unemployment.''
Miners borrowed the idea to block roads from Polish farmers, who have been staging unruly traffic stoppages against government policies in recent years.
The government wants to save an already scaled-down coal industry with a plan to write off almost all of its 18 billion zloty (US$4.5 billion) debt and close an unspecified number of pits by the end of 2006 at the loss of 25,000 jobs.
The industry, which employs some 140,000 people, lost 1 billion zlotys (US$230 million) last year.   (ms-tc)