The workers also want their wages boosted to account for fast-rising inflation.
“Miners are hated because they’re once again demanding something,” Bogusław Hutek, chief of the Solidarity mining union, told reporters on Tuesday.
“We’re not demanding anything, we want someone to value our hard work.”
PGG said it will start talks once a mediator is appointed.
Poland is one of the biggest coal producers in the world and PGG is Europe’s largest coal company.
Currently, around 80 percent of Poland’s power production is provided by coal. It aims to cut that to half by 2040 to reduce carbon emissions.
While European countries are planning to phase out coal by 2040 to achieve the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5ºC, consumption in key markets is forecast to increase for the next few years and coal-fired electricity generation could hit a record in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency.
France announced this week is considering a plan to allow electricity producers to burn more coal after the nation’s grid operator warned of possible power shortages.
Related Article: Which countries have the world’s largest coal reserves?
