At the Ruch "Knurów" mine owned by Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa, a group of miners decided to take matters into their own hands.
Trivial problems instead of political wars
At the head of the founding committee of the "August 80" Free Trade Union was a wall miner, Mateusz Demczuk.
And although another structure in the resource giant sounds like an accusation, its leaders distance themselves from allegations of escalating tensions.
I am a wall miner and, like you, I go underground every day, do my job and know the problems we face as employees of our mine perfectly. That is why, together with a group of employees, we founded the "August 80" Free Trade Union at Ruch Knurów - he explained in a statement.
Demczuk notes that the new organization was not created to fight the mine or shut it down, but to fight for employees and the future of the plant.
The motivation was not huge wage demands, but absurd everyday life. Examples include occupational health studies that require several days off in "Knurów", or gigantic delays in the laundry where a clean set can take up to a week.
Additionally, there are shortages of basic work tools such as protective gloves.
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Mathematics is absolute, i.e. 136 unions and a crisis in the background
The creation of the 136th union raises the absurdity bar even higher. Currently, JSW has 135 organizations functioning, and the unionization rate reaches an abstract level of 123,6% (many employees belong to several structures).
From the perspective of stock market investors, this is a clear signal that the company's management structure is extremely complicated.
This situation compounds the dramatic financial situation. JSW closed 2025 with a consolidated net loss of about 6,25 billion PLN, and the EBITDA result generated a minus of almost 5 billion PLN.
In the first quarter of the current year, the loss was limited to just under 616 million PLN, but the fire still burns. Backlog to ZUS amounts to about 1 billion PLN, obligations to suppliers exceed 600 million PLN, and on the bottom line key materials such as stone dust, track ballast fuel, or enclosure components are starting to run out.
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JSW shares versus unions - do markets have reasons to worry?
Despite the February agreement on limiting labor costs, management's relations with the crew are highly strained. In July, unionists warned of massive staffing shortages at the Knurów-Szczygłowice mine.
Retirement, severance, and mining holidays cause the rest of the crew to work under strong pressure.
Shareholders directly fear that another trade union could lower JSW's price on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Although theoretically rational demands for better gloves and efficient medical studies will not sink the company, for investors it is another confirmation that JSW is a complex organism where management is starting to fail badly.
If the lack of hands and organizational chaos translates into a lower output of coking coal, shareholders will indeed have reasons to worry.
On Friday, July 24, at the market close, JSW shares fell by 1,97% settling at 25,40 PLN.
Chart. Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa (JSW) share price
Source: TradingView.
See also: Company shares from the Warsaw Stock Exchange will fall by almost 30%! "Sell" - the new recommendation says.
Source: Jastrzębie Online.
