Juan Carlos Alvarez Liébana. We want to denounce the deadlock the coal industry is in. this year, we’re facing an unprecedented budget cut suffocating the sector, with a 63 percent cut to subsidies for the coal industry and 64 percent to the subsidies for reactivating the surroundings of mining regions. Such brual and unplanned cut is killing the secotr’s viability and condemning the regions. If nothing is done, by the end of the year, all businesses will close and the mining industry will die, along with the towns that live off it. We’re even more concerned since we’re now supposed to sign the 2013-2018 coal deal, and the government is going to want to negotiate based on 2012 subsidies, which are not normal.
Spanish miners undertook a series of “black marches” from all the mining regions in the country, opposing the 63 percent cut to the sector’s aid in 2012 in spite of what was planned in the 2006-2012 coal deal. The rallies should reach Madrid on July 10, when there will be a large evening gathering on the Puerta del Sol square. There should be a demonstration in the capital on July 11. Juan Carlos Alvarez Liébana, in charge of mining for Workers’ Commissions, is telling Planet Labor about the
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