Friday 26 September 2003 Poland's miners strike  | Thousand of Polish coalminers have begun a protest against government plans to close four pits in a bid to restructure the loss making industry. A march against the closures by around seven thousand miners in the capital Warsaw earlier this month, ended in some of the worst rioting Poland has seen in recent years. This report from Adam Easton in Warsaw: |
 Listen to the story Traffic in parts of Poland's industrial heartland of Silesia has been brought to a standstill by the miner's blockade. Waving the red and white flags of the Solidarity trade union, miners marched peacefully across main roads in the region. They're calling it the total blockade of Silesia. Poland's miners are furious the government isunwilling to discuss its decision to close four pits in the area next year. Talks between workers and the state coal company's management broke down earlier this week. The demonstration is the latest in a series of protests which turned violent earlier this month during a huge rally in Warsaw. Angry miners threw rocks and molotov cocktails. Police responded with tear gas and water cannon. Dozens of policemen and miners were injured. Miner's leaders hope their firm stance will force Poland's unpopular social democrat government to back down. It may yet do so. High unemployment is one of the biggest problems facing a government already plagued by corruption scandals. Some estimates put the number of jobless in Silesia at twice the national rate of 18 percent. But Poland's coal industry - the second largest in Europe - is heavily in debt - to the tune of 6 and a half billion dollars. To make it more efficient and receive much needed World Bank funds, the government wants to cut costly production and shed 14,000 jobs. And when Poland joins the European Union next May the government knows it will no longer have free rein to bail out the ailing coal sector.
Adam Easton, BBC , Warsaw
Listen to the words industrial heartland the area where most industry is is unwilling to discuss its decision does not want to talk about what it has decided to do turned became firm stance if you have a firm stance, your attitude to something is unlikely to change high unemployment a large number of people without jobs some estimates put according to some approximate calculations twice the national rate twice as high as the average level for the whole country to the tune of to the extent of cut costly production stop producing things which are not profitable bail out if a government bails out industry, it helps, for example with subsidies  Read more about this story | |  | | | SEARCH IN LEARNING ENGLISH | | | |
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