Today in Katowice, a massive protest is being held by the largest steel and mining trade unions. In the afternoon, three groups of union members will begin a star-shaped march toward the city center.
Representatives of the organizations affiliated with the Inter-Union Protest and Strike Committee of the Silesia-Dąbrowa Region (MKPS) announced on October 20 that a joint demonstration would take place on November 4.
Around 3:30 p.m., three groups of protesters are expected to set off – from Załęże, Kościuszko Park, and Spodek – heading toward the Silesian Voivodeship Office, where at around 5:00 p.m. they will gather for a 90-minute demonstration. The columns of demonstrators will move through the very center of Katowice.
It is estimated that at least several thousand people will take part in the protest.
Miners: The social agreement is not being fulfilled
Dominik Kolorz, head of the Silesia-Dąbrowa branch of Solidarity, noted on the eve of the demonstration that it was being organized by the Inter-Union Protest and Strike Committee of the Silesia-Dąbrowa Region, reactivated after five years.
“Regardless of political sympathies, we have all united. This shows how serious the situation is. Jobs in the automotive sector are disappearing. The steel industry in Poland is losing to the flood of imported steel from China and Ukraine. The social agreement on the transformation of the mining sector and the region is not being implemented. The situation of Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa is hopeless. In the coking industry, we are on the verge of losing financial liquidity. We are fighting to keep Silesia alive,” declared Kolorz.
The MKPS of the Silesia-Dąbrowa Region was reactivated on October 13. The committee includes Solidarity, OPZZ, the Trade Unions Forum, and August ’80. Union leaders cited the worsening condition of industry and the lack of satisfactory results from talks with the government on the problems of the steel and mining sectors as the reasons for reviving the committee.
Steelworkers: Industry is dying
Steelworkers warn that the uncontrolled import of steel is destroying Poland’s metallurgical industry, while high energy costs add further strain. They point out that Europe is destroying its own economy in the name of a “climate ideology,” while China, the United States, and India continue to produce steel and mine coal.
Steelworkers’ unions are calling for a halt to steel imports from outside the EU, including from Ukraine, the introduction of stable preferential energy prices for energy-intensive industries, and for Poland to reject the so-called Green Deal.