Prime Minister Donald Tusk proudly announced this week that 500 jobs will be recreated at Rafako — a company shut down last year. But according to Andrzej Karol, head of the National Council for the Steel Industry Section of the “Solidarity” trade union, that’s just a drop in the ocean. “Since December 2023, 2,300 jobs have disappeared in the steel industry, which across Poland is on the brink of collapse. These layoffs have hit Silesia the hardest. Now the largest steel producer — the former Katowice Steelworks — is shutting down its blast furnace, initially for nine months, while waiting to see what happens next,” he told us.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Tusk visited the defunct industrial giant Rafako in Racibórz, proudly announcing that 500 jobs would be restored there. Even a pro-government Silesian newspaper wrote: “Hit of the day. The Prime Minister kept his word.” Yet it’s worth remembering that over 1,000 people lost their jobs at Rafako and its subsidiary Rafamet. And across Silesia, the situation is deteriorating in multiple sectors. Fujitsu, the Japanese IT systems manufacturer with branches in Katowice and Łódź, plans to lay off nearly 800 employees. Despite repeated inquiries, we were unable to confirm how many of those will come from Silesia.
Meanwhile, the Stellantis plant in Tychy — part of the global automotive group that owns brands like Peugeot, Citroën, Opel, and Fiat — has temporarily halted production. Similar stoppages have been announced across Europe, some lasting up to two months. Unsurprisingly, fears of job losses are growing in Silesia. Last year, Stellantis permanently closed its plant in Bielsko-Biała, where more than 500 people worked. A similar number were laid off in Gliwice.
“Permanent employment at the Gliwice production and technology center remains stable at over 2,000 people. In 2024, we ended fixed-term contracts with 500 employees who were hired temporarily to support production,”
said Agnieszka Brania, press spokesperson for Stellantis factories in Poland, in an interview with Niezalezna.pl.
She added:
“The stoppage in Tychy will last 10 days and is a temporary, flexible adjustment of production levels to changing market conditions in Europe, as part of our annual production plan. It will not affect employment at the plant.”
(Editor’s note: The Tychy plant employs 2,600 people.)
Poland’s Largest Steelworks Shuts Down Its Blast Furnace
The labor market outlook in the Silesian region is worsening. ArcelorMittal Poland, in Dąbrowa Górnicza (formerly the Katowice Steelworks), has shut down its No. 3 blast furnace — for now, for nine months.
“We employ 9,000 workers across our six branches in Poland and 2,000 in partner companies,”
said Marzena Rogozik from ArcelorMittal Poland.
“We do not plan layoffs. Experienced, long-serving employees are the backbone of our company. Even when changes occur in our plant configurations, we always strive to offer workers new roles, finance retraining, or compensate them for commuting to other locations. Such solutions are always agreed upon with trade unions.”
“A Creeping Process of Job Elimination”
According to Andrzej Karol, head of the National Council for the Steel Industry Section of NSZZ “Solidarity”:
“Since December 2023, we’ve lost about 2,300 steel industry jobs — it’s a creeping process of employment elimination. There are concerns about our biggest player, ArcelorMittal Poland, which suspended its blast furnace operations in Dąbrowa Górnicza and is now waiting to see what happens in Europe — whether there’s still hope for maintaining steel production on our continent. Europe must finally focus on its own economy, especially now, when we talk so much about security and innovation. The steel industry is the foundation of everything — from tanks to cars, steel is needed everywhere. Demand for steel products is enormous.”
Karol emphasized that Europe’s inaction has reduced production capacity from 85% to 60%, allowing foreign markets to fill the gap.
“Up to now, 12 million tons of semi-finished steel products — so-called ‘slabs’ — have entered Europe from Russia. Russian rolling mills operate in Western European countries such as Belgium, Denmark, and Italy — all with EU approval. It’s understandable that these nations want to keep their plants running, but it’s hypocritical that, while condemning Russia politically, the EU allows it to profit from the European steel market.”
Karol warned that the Polish steel industry is “up against the wall.”
“After our latest talks with the government — with Energy Minister Miłosz Motyka and MPs during the parliamentary Economic Committee meeting — we concluded that escalating protests is the only way forward. The 500 jobs promised for Silesia at Rafako are a drop in the ocean. The EU’s June 6 decision allowing Ukraine to export steel inputs to Europe for three more years — without limits or restrictions — threatens our domestic market. Last year alone, of the 3 million tons of Ukrainian steel sent to Europe, 1 million stayed in Poland. It undermines competitiveness, since Ukrainian steel isn’t subject to ETS taxes and is cheaper.”
Karol argued that Poland cannot afford government indecision any longer:
“The Tusk government says Poland will need around 140 billion zł worth of steel for infrastructure — for CPK, nuclear power, and transmission lines. That demand could come entirely from our domestic steel industry. If the project is that big, let’s make sure that the products come from Polish steelworks.”
Trade Unions Unite for a Massive Protest
Trade unions from Silesia and the Dąbrowa Basin have joined forces again. The Inter-Union Protest and Strike Committee of the Silesia–Dąbrowa Region has resumed operations and is preparing a large-scale demonstration in Katowice in early November. The reasons: lack of government agreements on mining and steel.
The committee was originally formed in 2012, and in March 2013 it organized a general strike across the region involving 85,000 workers from about 400 workplaces.
“The times we live in have forced the social side to take necessary actions to save companies, jobs, and defend decent living standards,”
said Sławomir Kozłowski, head of the “Solidarity” trade union organization at Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa (JSW) — the EU’s largest coking coal producer, employing over 32,000 people in its group.
The company is on the verge of collapse. No one from JSW’s press office agreed to comment, but Kozłowski did not mince words:
“The current ruling coalition — either through incompetence or deliberate intent — has brought many firms to the brink of bankruptcy, and that must be said out loud.”
“The Government Is Spreading Half-Truths — or Lies”
“The government spreads half-truths, or outright lies, about the situation of companies and workers. Deputy Minister Kropiwnicki and Prime Minister Tusk both recently claimed that wages at JSW rose by 60%. That’s an outrageous lie intended to pit miners against other professional groups. They also said wage increases continued despite the worsening company condition — another lie now repeated in the media. Governance in Poland has become about dividing people. We must shout it loud — either we are ruled by fools, or by people executing a plan to hand over our companies to foreign interests or eliminate Polish industry altogether,”
Kozłowski told Niezalezna.pl, visibly frustrated.
He added:
“Coking coal, coke plants, and steelworks form one industrial cycle — they can’t function separately. We want to protest as one, but we also believe other professional and social groups should join. The entire life of Silesia is connected to industry. In cities like Jastrzębie-Zdrój, home to JSW’s headquarters, the fall of industry would hit retail, healthcare, and education workers alike. It’s the productive sector that funds the state budget — without it, there will be no money for public services or for the security the government talks so much about.”