Artykuł pochodzi z pisma "New Warsaw Express"

What do miners do when all the mines in their town are closed down? Option A: find a new profession. Option B: go up into the woods near their house with a lot of other laid-off miners and start digging. Believe us, this happens in Poland. A lot. And the results are not unpredictable.

Over the weekend a 41-year old unemployed man from the post-heavy-industry mess that is the south-western town of Walbrzych was killed by a landslide in an illegal pit. Along with dozens of others, he was mining coal in a makeshift shaft dug in a forested hill at the outskirts of the town, when over six cubic metres of earth caved in to bury him alive. According to reports on the TVP national news on Sunday, the man was still alive and crying out for help after the accident happened, but the fire brigade and mountain rescue service could not save him as they lacked specialized equipment. The coal mining rescue service was summoned from Bytom in Upper Silesia but they arrived too late. Once a thriving coal mining centre, Walbrzych's mines were finally closed down in 1996 and the community is still dealing with over 20-percent long-term "structural" unemployment. Among other reactions are the 3,000 miners who toil everyday in illegal, non-registered coal pits in the area, or "poverty shafts" as they're referred to in Polish, to make ends meet. On Sunday, visibly shaken by the death of their colleague, who left two orphaned children behind him, other miners told TV reporters that they would be going back to work "business as usual" the following Monday.

How does this relate to those still working in the official industry? The latter’s union representation muscle has ensured men stay on in jobs paying zl.3-4000 plus monthly, in businesses that only make huge losses. It’s difficult to see the connection between the two lives.

• « poprz.
• nast. »