Spanish miners stage sit-in

FAR, far away from a Chilean mine where 33 trapped men struggle to cope as they await rescue, 50 Spanish miners are also deep in the earth’s bowels – but by their own choice.

Yesterday marked Day 9 of an unusual coal miners’ protest, a sit-in staged 500 metres underground. No showers, no toilets, no internet and soot-dusted mattresses are a small price to pay, the miners reason, in exchange for a more hopeful future for their beleaguered industry.

Their strike in northern Palencia province is the culmination of a long dispute over unpaid wages and the future of an antiquated industry struggling to survive as it competes with gas-fired electrical utility plants and heavily subsidised renewable energy projects.