At the moment around 1.400 employees at the Velenje coal mine are on strike. Foto: BoBo
At the moment around 1.400 employees at the Velenje coal mine are on strike. Foto: BoBo
Despite being invited, the relevant ministers did not send their representatives to Velenje. Aleksander Kavčnik, a representative of the strike committee, said miners won't back down with their demands and won't accept salary cuts. Foto: BoBo

Apart from the municipality councilors and all three mayors, also present at the meeting are the Chairman of HSE Blaž Košorok, the general directors of TEŠ and the Premogovnik Velenje coal mine, as well as representatives of the new strike committee.
Despite being invited, the relevant ministers did not send their representatives to Velenje. Aleksander Kavčnik, a representative of the strike committee, said miners won't back down with their demands and won't accept salary cuts.

At the moment around 1.400 employees at the Velenje coal mine are on strike. Negotiations were said to continue. In an emotional speech, the miners' representative in the coal mine supervisory council, Bojan Brcar, said they've been warning about the coal mine's great indebtedness for some time now (75 million euros). He said the spontaneous strike happened because their honesty was not appreciated. Miners have been warning about the low agreed price of coal, however they've had no choice but to confirm the deal, or otherwise they would have been without pay since March.

Blaž Košorok warned not to add fuel to the fire, as he expected tough negotiations ahead. ''We're moving along the edge. The situation in TEŠ is also financially critical, and the Premogovnik Velenje coal mine is just two steps away from bankruptcy,'' added Mr. Košorok.

Raising prices would only deepen HSE's troubles
One of the key demands of the miners and the management of the Premogonik Velenje coal mine is to increase the price of coal for the Šoštanj Thermal Power Plant. That would improve the situation at the coal mine and would allow miners to preserve their current salaries. However that would only worsen the profitability of the TEŠ Unit 6, awaiting its official opening, and also deepen the problems of the whole HSE Group.
With the present price of 2,25 euros per gigajoule Teš Unit 6 would operate with a loss in the first year. Nevenka Hrovatin from the Faculty of Economics says the 6th generator just can't afford to have the price of coal increase by 1 euro. "From the time the investment plan was put together, and that was during the crisis, electricity prices have fallen drastically. That means that any kind of price increase would lead to a business which would be unprofitable."

Hrovatin is of the opinion that one of the things the coal mine could do, is sell-off its other activities. "The coal mine is also involved in other business activities. And some of them are not profitable at all. It would be good to think about downsizing its business activities, and selling-off its unprofitable parts."

What do we want in the long-term?
One of our leading energy experts Peter Novak says the state, the owner of the electric power companies, needs to take a broader look at the issues and make a decision of what we really want in the long-term: "If the price the miners demand is a realistic price, which would cover all costs, then we should acknowledge it and draw up a national-economic plan, to see what it would mean to produce electricity with a little dearer domestic coal, and what it would mean to import cheaper electricity from abroad."

The coal mine business is not the only business undergoing a rationalisation process, as the HSE Group already bears the heavy burden of an irrational investment in the TEŠ Unit 6. In the following days the HSE Group will sign a sales agreement to sell its shares in the hydropower plants on the lower Sava river to the GEN Group, a 50 percent share owner of NEK (Krško Nuclear Power Plant). Negotiations with a potential buyer for the Trbovlje Thermoelectric Power Plant are also under way.

Duška Lah, TV Slovenija, Erna Strniša, Radio Slovenija; translated by K. J.