Unions rejoin coal sector talks after two-year absence

"This is the first in over two years of meetings in the framework of social dialogue involving the union side, which suspended its participation in the Tripartite Commission in June 2013," the socio-legal advisor to the Union Forum Anna Grabowska told the Polish press agency PAP.

With less than two months before a general election, very little in the way of concrete agreements are likely, observers say. The liberal government of Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz was widely seen as side-stepping a probable stand-off with mining unions in January.

Representatives of trade unions and employers were joined by representatives of the economy, treasury and labour ministries at the Thursday talks.

The government has presented a draft strategy for the Polish energy sector and already submitted it to public consultation. The unions in turn criticised it as being “too vague” and not containing plans for development of the sector.

Unions said they believe the government will renege on employment guarantees in the industry. Chairman of the Public Consultative Council and Deputy Head of the FZZ union, Waldemar Lutkowski, said the unions had yet to forward any wage claims and had only so far called for guarantees of employment.

"We are ready for talks with government representatives and employers, because the collapse of dialogue could mean strikes," he said.

Wojciech Ilnicki of the "Solidarity" union in KWB "Turów" said the mines in Bełchatów – the largest in Poland - and the Turów coal mine (Kopalnia Węgla Brunatnego Turów) are ready to strike. He said that [the government's] “torpedoing” of the agreement was an "an attempt to push the unions into strikes and then accusing them of political action."

The ailing coal sector could see financial meltdown by 2020 if steps are not taken soon to lower costs and increase productivity, a report suggests.

“Even the worst coal mines in the US are three times more productive than the average productivity of Polish coal mines,” according to a report into Polish mining by the Warsaw Institute of Economics (WISE).

Coal mining in Poland produced 144 million metric tons of coal in 2012, 55 percent of primary energy consumption and 75 percent of power generation. Poland is the second-largest coal-mining country in Europe, after Germany, and the ninth-largest coal producer in the world.

In January the government signed a deal with trade unions designed to save four coal mines from being closed down, preventing some 5,000 workers from losing jobs. The deal came after days of tense talks against a backdrop of underground strikes at several Silesian mines. (jh/rk)