Vol. 72/No. 6      February 11, 2008

Union representatives said the dangerously high line speeds and the inadequate bathroom breaks were key issues workers wanted to address immediately.

About 70 workers gathered the day of the vote to demonstrate in favor of the union, according to Denver’s Channel 7 news.

“We are working all the time with knives close to our bodies and we don’t have protection on the body or hands,” Luis Medina, a worker at the plant, told the media.

Workers said the company doesn’t offer sufficient health benefits, pays low wages, and doesn’t provide adequate safety equipment.

—Horace Kerr

Miners in Poland
strike for pay increase
January 25—Miners at the Budryk coal mine in Silesia, southern Poland, have been on strike since mid-December, United Press International reported January 16. On December 24, 12 miners began a protest inside the mine. Some 150 miners joined the underground protest in January. Hundreds have held mass pickets outside the mine. Ten miners began a hunger strike inside the mine.

The mine is owned by the state. The operation is slated to be merged with the state-run Weglowa Co. mines, which is Europe’s largest coal producer. The miners are demanding that their wages be increased to the level of miners employed by Weglowa. This amounts to a 20 percent raise.

—Paul Pederson  
 
 
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