On the surface, the giant cross still watches over the century-old Wujek mine in Katowice, which is living its last moments. The sky sprinkles its snowflakes on the anthracite mud. The processing plant is silenced. Nothing vibrates anymore, in this metal monster. Neither conveyor belts, nor the comings and goings of giant sieves, nor even human industry. For three months, moreover, we no longer speak of “mine” but of ” movement “ Wujek. A mild euphemism to evoke the liquidation process that has begun.
“It’s as if we no longer want to remember what happened”
The storage areas where the coal mounds once waited are empty. A handful of employees are working on the dismantling. “We knew it was going to happen, but we never imagined it would go so quickly,” loose Zygmunt, 57, who makes the visit dragging his broad build. Three more years to go before retirement. The miner started his career in 1985.
After a double back operation, he was assigned to train his younger colleagues. The mine did not spare him, but he suffers at the idea that it might sink into oblivion. “Some have lost their children here. Before, there were commemorations; now it’s over. It’s as if we no longer want to remember what happened. »
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Uncle («l’oncle » in Polish) has not breathed its last yet. In the background, the extraction continues. In slow motion. At a rate of 2,500 tons per day compared to 4,500 in 2018. The life of the site is now only due to a gallery which connects it to the neighboring Staszic mine, which continues to extract between 6,000 and 7,000 tons per day. It is there that Wujek’s coal is brought up, cleaned, sorted, distributed. On the Wujek side, nothing escapes from the fourteen tracks of the site, which looks like a disused station. The rail will be sold to the highest bidder, possibly a rail company.
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In the industrial wasteland, you have to scrap and dismantle what is of value. Five people are busy on the second floor, around a settling tank. Shovel in hand, one of them comments on a red and white heart – the colors of Poland – painted by workers on the wall: “A couple of colleagues met here, they are still together. »
A page of history is turning. The elders remember the action of « pacification » of the communist police and army, during the strike of December 1981. The massacre killed nine miners. “We have just put a tank in the museum, the same one that was used for repression”reports Zygmunt, the guardian of memories.
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Hanna Firlus, mine manager since 2019, is doing everything to make the transition go smoothly. She is the only woman in the country to hold this position. Very smiling in her flowery dress, this professional economist would disarm a trade unionist tempted to throw a chair across the room.
Social dialogue and human resources are precisely his area of expertise. She is all regarding training. A few months ago, the site served as a mine-school, for all types of qualifications, from young apprentice miners to students at Polytechnique attracted by the salary conditions of the sector. Except that, now, the parents no longer want to send their child there.
Plug the well with earth or water
But classes still take place underground. “We want to push the qualifications of miners by multiplying their certification on different machines, so as to maintain their versatility, which will be used here or on another site”, insists the director. The end of all activity in Wujek will take at least four to five years.
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“It’s not a store curtain that can be closed overnight”, emphasizes Hanna Firlus. Once the extraction has completely ceased, it will be necessary to solicit a company specializing in restructuring to secure the premises and recover what can be recovered. Two options will present themselves: plug the well with earth, or fill it with water. The second solution would make it easier to restore the site to working order, in the event of a political volte-face. Nothing is decided yet at this stage.
An aid plan worth more than 6 billion euros
The Wujek mine is the first of the seven mines supposed to begin the ball of closures. On September 25, 2020, the Polish government and the country’s six largest trade union centers signed an agreement in Katowice, Silesia. Together, they agreed to end the exploitation of coal mines in 2049, so as to meet the European objectives of carbon neutrality.
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However, this plan has not yet received the final green light from Brussels. The first mines to be liquidated will be the least modern, with lower yields. Three of them have been identified in the town of Ruda, also in Silesia, 50 km from Katowice. Among them, that of Pokoj, which has no more coal.
Warsaw is using drastic measures to support the drop in coal production. A Silesian transformation fund has been set up. For the decade 2022-2031, nearly 29 billion zlotys (6.4 billion euros) have been voted in Parliament. The Polska Grupa Gornicza (PGG) group alone, Europe’s largest state-controlled producer, is expected to earn 4.4 billion euros, a quarter of which this year.
“By signing this agreement, we have bought time”
A vast social plan has been launched in the company, which operates almost all the mines in Poland, including Wujek. Miners who are four years from the end of their career can leave with 75% of their salary, following which they will receive 100% of their pension. In January alone this year, 1,300 people opted for an early departure, in a group that previously employed 38,700 people. At this rate, the workforce will dwindle. “Poland is liquidating its mining industry on its own”denounces Rafal Jedwabny, president of the Sierpien 80 union at PGG.
Rafal Jedwabny is one of the leaders who signed the ” social contract “ planning the end of coal by 2049. His office is at the Staszic mine. However, he does not believe for a second in the death of coal. “By signing this agreement, we have bought time, and it is working in our favor even faster than expected”explains the trade unionist, tattooed biceps under his rugby polo shirt.
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“We thought we would give ourselves seven or eight years, until we realize how essential mines are. But in the end, it only took two before the balance of power was reversed with the Ukrainian crisis and its repercussions on the price of energy. » The statistics don’t prove him wrong. In 2021, electricity generation from coal jumped 26% compared to 2020, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Unheard of for eight years.
Rafal Jedwabny lends the Europeans ulterior motives: “Poland is the last fully energy self-sufficient country, unlike France, which depends on uranium imports, not to mention Germany, which depends on Russian gas. We don’t want to depend on energy sources from abroad. »
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The trade unionist, who harbors dreams of “clean coal”, is betting on a political reversal. As recently as January, the Polish government asked miners to work weekends to meet the country’s affordable energy needs. The opportunity for workers to test their bargaining skills. Two coal starting points were blocked, despite not having been paid their overtime. The money did not take forty-eight hours to be paid out.
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Poland’s dependence on coal
► Poland is the only member country of the European Union (EU) not to have committed to follow the target of “carbon neutral” by 2050. Poland depends on coal for more than 75% of its primary energy production. The Polish government blames the EU as responsible for the increase in energy prices due to rising carbon prices.
► In January 2021, the European Commission has clarified the outlines of a just transition fund to help the most carbon-intensive economies to get out of their dependence. Out of a total envelope of 17.5 billion euros, 2 billion must be allocated to Poland.
► In litigation with the Czech Republic, Poland was ordered to pay 15 million euros in penalties (excluding interest), before reaching an agreement, for having maintained the lignite mine near the border, whose harmful effects on the environment were denounced by Prague. The European Commission has threatened to withdraw the sum from European funds if the fine is not paid.