Indefinite strike in private coal mines

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The workers of the MSP private coal-mining company launched an indefinite strike in September 1999 against the company's strategy for the mines, which they fear may lead to the dismantling of the sector in Laciana county, León. The strike was still continuing in late November.

Minero Siderurgica Ponferrada (MSP) owns several coal mines located in Laciana county, León, and has a workforce of 1,200 persons, plus 500 subcontracted workers. It is a private company owned by Victorino Alonso, whose business group controls 22.5% of the national production of "guaranteed" (ie subsidised) coal and 57% of the coal production of the Autonomous Community (region) of Castilla y León. MSP's workers represent 50% of mining employment in the region.

MSP has a somewhat chequered record of business management. After a technical bankruptcy which was qualified as fraudulent, and which led to mobilisations by workers that made history in the coal-mining sector (the so-called "black march" and a three-month strike), a viability plan was negotiated in 1993. The company went from public to private ownership but has received a great deal of public investment, which now represents ESP 9 billion per year. The privatisation itself had unclear aspects, since the Victorino Alonso group was insolvent at the time of the buy-out and despite having a debt of over ESP 2.5 billion it was given a guarantee by the Caja España bank. Since then, notable events have included allegations of false expenses paid through public subsidies and of possible fraudulent transfers between group companies in 1997.

The conflict

MSP and the county of Laciana are no exceptions to the endemic problems of coal mining: low profitability and the need for considerable public subsidies in areas without alternative industrial or services infrastructures, which depend on coal mining to sustain the population (ES9802245F). This is aggravated in Laciana by the fact that it is far from towns with consolidated economic structures and still has poor communications.

In 1998, MSP and the trade unions signed a modernisation plan for the company, following the guidelines of the 1998-2005 "national plan for the coalmining sector and alternative development of mining districts" (ES9707119N). The basis of the MSP plan is to keep in operation all underground mines that have large reserves of coal whose extraction is not economically profitable but is socially desirable, as long as they require a large workforce. Despite the subsidies that have been received for these mines, the plan foresees decreasing production and employment in them. It also plans to promote new open-cast mines which are more economically viable because they need less investment and fewer personnel. Although the MSP plan refers to the different mines and to the workforce of the company, these two variables are not related - ie there is no specification of the number of workers at each mine. This is of particular concern to the trade unions, which distrust the management, since the authorities do not check the origin of subsidised coal (open-cast or underground mines). Therefore, the unions demand that the company specify the correlation between each mine and the number of workers employed.

By the middle of 1999, as a result of declarations by the management, the lack of preparation work for new extraction and the transfer of workers, it became clear that the company had decided unilaterally to close the María group of underground mines, the second group of mines to be closed since the signing of the modernisation plan. Enormous amounts of public money have been invested in these mines and, according to the unions, they show good operating results and could thus continue to guarantee employment at a small maintenance cost.

At the same time, the company is carrying out a unilateral strategy of continuous acquisition and exploitation of open-cast mines. According to the unions, the acquisition of open-cast mines has been accompanied by dubious episodes: allegedly, local communities that do not allow the company to open the mines are threatened with the dismissal of workers living in these towns (as at Robles), and young workers are recruited from the communities that do accept. The working conditions and wages of the new workers are said to be far worse than those of existing workers, with less time off, Saturday working and a lack of minimum hygiene facilities (eg washbasins allegedly three kilometres from the pit). Open-cast mining also leads to the deterioration of the landscape and - as in all mining areas - nothing is done to restore the areas affected.

There have also been continuous conflicts between the company and the trade unions over unilateral changes in the conditions of workers with the longest service (eg a wage cut for drillers caused strikes in February and March 1999).

Faced with this situation, the unions suspect that the company has a parallel plan to the one that has been signed. They claim that the intention of the company is to increase productivity through wage cuts and worse conditions, and by closing "socially profitable" underground mines and concentrating on the economically profitable and ephemeral open-cast mines. The unions allege that the company is taking advantage of state subsidies for the personal enrichment of its executives.

Mobilisations

At the end of September 1999, after several vain attempts to put pressure on the management of the company, the workers decided at a mass meeting to go on indefinite strike until the future of the locations and employment in MSP had been clarified. All the workers and the workers' committee- composed of members of CC.OO (the majority trade union), UGT and USO- have since followed the protest at the time of writing (late November).

Since 1 October, five miners have stayed 300 metres below ground in the pit that the company intends to close. Also, since 13 October eight workers have been camped in rotating shifts in front of the headquarters of the regional government of Castilla y León. The rest of the workers have met every morning to prepare the mobilisations, in which a third of the workforce are constantly deployed, according to local newspapers. They have organised demonstrations and road-blocks on the main roads, handed out leaflets and picketed other group companies. This has led to several disciplinary dismissals and the arrest of workers for confrontations with the police.

The public appear to be fully behind the workers. A demonstration on 14 October in the municipality of Villablino was attended by 10,000 of the county's population of 15,000, according to the media. All the political parties (IU, PSOE, PP and UPL), neighbourhood associations, the Laciana Economic and Social Council and other social institutions in Laciana have declared their support for the miners.

At the same time, the government of Castilla y León has been making attempts at mediation (three times in October) and the director general for mines, Paloma Sendín and the director of the Coal Institute (Instituto del Carbón), Juan Miguel Benitez, have visited the striking miners.

The current position of the parties

The company management considers that the dispute is a political problem, rather than one of managerial strategy. It considers that the trade unions are "confused" and that the concentration of mining in new mines was already explicit in the modernisation plan that they themselves signed - a plan that guarantees employment up to 2005. The management of MSP states that the only events that can compromise the viability of the mines are "hypothetical changes in the policy of the central and autonomous governments regarding coal, the policy of some local governments regarding open-cast mining and the irrational positions of the trade unions".

In November, unions the unions were due to continue the permanent strike for a further month, and intended to involve all the workers of the Victorino Alonso group, stating that: "in view of the situation, without a single alternative managerial project, while we have the capacity to manoeuvre we must defend what we have, mining, as the only source of employment." They consider that the authorities bear the responsibility for the situation because they failed to monitor the company's actions.

The city council of Villablino, governed by IU, considers that the managerial strategy of MSP does not guarantee the future of coal mining beyond 2005, and that a longer perspective is necessary in a district which is still engaged a restructuring process. Against what it considers to be a speculative policy aimed at achieving rapid profits for the management of MSP, it has supported the workers at all times. In the last week of October, after a council meeting, it decided to urge the central government to intervene immediately in MSP and to carry out an external audit to determine the destination of the public funds received by MSP in the past few years. The workers may soon second these demands.

So far the government of Castilla y León has attempted to mediate in the conflict without results. It maintains an ambiguous position, although it arguably seems more inclined to support the company management. A technical report drawn up by the regional government does not take into account the trade union demands for specification of the number of workers for each mine but points out, as already stated by the workers, that the coal reserves will last beyond 2005.

The central government's director of mines is "satisfied" with the report by the regional government and rejects the possibility of state intervention beyond the current subsidies.

Commentary

After 30 years of social conflict, the future of Spanish mining is uncertain in an economic situation in which business profit is put before social needs. In mining areas such as Laciana, the problem of a "mono-economy" without alternative economic activities has not been solved. The "national plan for the coalmining sector and alternative development of mining districts" has been in force for two years, but little seems to have been done beyond declarations of intent. In these conditions, the reduction in mining will lead inexorably to economic decline in these areas.

The workers of MSP and the inhabitants of Laciana county also have a more serious problem which should be the cause for great public concern: government subsidies may allegedly be contributing to the personal enrichment of a few instead of being invested in the future of mining. The individuals concerned may, it is claimed, be dismantling mining in this area because they have the power to close pits in which enormous amounts of public money have been invested. What is more, they may also, it is claimed, destroy the landscape of the area, which is a source of one of the few viable alternatives to mining: rural tourism.

In view of the situation, it is not surprising that the strike has lasted for one and a half months at the time of writing, that five people are locked in a pit 300 metres underground and that the demonstrations receive massive support from the local population (Clara Llorens Serrano, QUIT-UAB).