"Spain miners steadfast at sit-in; Reject allusions to workers trapped in Chilean mine" by Daniel Woolls, Associated Press | September 11, 2010
INSIDE LAS CUEVAS MINE, Spain — Far, far away from a Chilean mine where 33 trapped men struggle to cope as they await rescue, 50 Spanish miners are also deep in the earth — but by their own choice.
Yesterday marked the ninth day of an unusual coal miners’ protest, a sit-in staged 1,650 feet underground. No showers, no toilets, no Internet, and soot-dusted mattresses are a small price to pay, the miners reason, in exchange for a more hopeful future for their industry.
The strike is at the mine called Las Cuevas, near the town of Velilla del Rio Carrion in northern Palencia Province. It is the culmination of a long dispute over unpaid wages and the future of an antiquated industry struggling to survive as it competes with gas-fired electrical utility plants and heavily subsidized renewable energy projects.
To make matters worse, all these sources of energy are seeking aid from a government grappling with a recession, high unemployment, and a debt crisis. Spain’s coal mining industry employs about 10,000 people, down from 50,000 in the late 1970s.
The Spaniards underground vehemently deny any suggestion they are cashing in on the South American crisis where the Chileans have been trapped in a cramped shelter for a month, saying the two dramas overlap only in time. They acknowledge that their plight is by choice, nowhere near as perilous and can end whenever they choose.
And give it another month. Some mine somewhere else will have an accident.
“You have to think about their situation. Their thing is about survival. Ours is about asserting ourselves,’’ said Juan Carlos Liebana, 41, wearing a white hard hat turned gray with coal soot. “We send them hope and unity.’’
His colleagues sat in near silence at a long wooden table in the dim light. They read newspapers sent down daily by relatives and ate hot food, gaining strength by looking at family photographs and messages.
I can't imagine reading newspapers helped.
Like a makeshift clothesline, a rope attached to one wall where coal is collected from the mine’s shafts exhibits letters and pictures from the miners’ children.
The miners earn $1,275 to $3,820 a month, the highest wages going to “picadores,’’ those doing the most dangerous job of crawling into cramped spaces with heavy jackhammers to extract coal that has been loosened with dynamite blasts.
The strike in Palencia began when the miners’ employer, a company called UMINSA, told them they would not be paid on time for August.
The miners, however, say their main gripe is much broader: Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s failure to implement a decree that would subsidize utility companies running old coal-fired plants so they will use a certain percentage of Spanish coal instead of importing coal from developing countries such as South Africa.
The decree was signed in February but has been held up by the European Union amid concerns that the subsidies may hinder free-market competition.
Aren't you guys glad you joined?
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I'm alays glad when those guys take a seat.
And about those Chilean miners:
"2,300 feet below, foreman rose to challenge; Urzua’s guidance is vital for trapped miners in Chile" by Jonathan Franklin, Washington Post | September 7, 2010
COPIAPO, Chile — The Chilean government has in place three rescue plans. Each effort represents a multimillion-dollar gamble, and each depends on Luis Urzua’s ability to organize his crew to help.
“You realize that if we do it this way, there will be some 70,000 liters of water coming down into your chamber,’’ said Andre Sougarret, the rescue mission’s lead engineer, as he briefed Urzua by telephone Friday.
Or tons of rock.
For 10 minutes, Urzua and Sougarret discussed plans to construct drainage and holding pools and canals to shunt water away from the miners’ living quarters.
An audio recording of their conversation would have sounded like a normal back-and-forth between manager and shift supervisor. In fact, Sougarret was standing in a windswept tent, speaking into a Nitsuko phone system the size of a small suitcase, with cables running almost half a mile into the ground, where a weary Urzua prepared for a mission that will determine whether 33 men survive.
Also see: Chilean Miners Resort to Cannibalism
Nice to know they are eating well.
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That's the last time I read about them in the Globe.
Also see:
Chilean Gold Mine
Spending Some Time With the Trapped Chilean Miners
Chilean Miners Caught on Tape
Checking In With the Chilean Miners
