Over 2000 miners of the Silesian coal basin (southern Poland) are on strike in response to the governmental decision to close down 4 mines of state-owned company Kompania Weglowa. Kompania Weglowa is the EU’s largest coal mining group with a production capacity of 34 million tones of coal. It consists of 14 mines and 5 plants employing 64 000 workers. The strike started on January 7, with the miners from the Brzeszcze mine refusing to return overground. The protest quickly spread through the coal mining sector of the region. Currently miners working in the pits owned by other big mining groups (Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa and Katowicki Holding Węglowy) are joining the strike, while Silesian municipalities are petitioning the national government in defense of workplaces essential to the social well-being of the region.