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Giuseppe Ungari / EPA
Some of the 100 Sardinian miners armed with explosives barricaded themselves nearly 400 meters underground in Italy's only coal mine, Monday.
The miners laugh at the sight of worried journalists, who are used to elevators stopping on the ground floor. This one, instead, is descending about 400 yards underground, to the site of the last coal mine in Italy.
The gate opens to an underworld where conditions are almost unbearable. It's hot and humid, and it doesn't take long before we chew on the bitter taste of coal dust.
Just a few miles away, thousands of tourists sunbathe on the Italian island’s pristine beaches, but the miners' skin has been darkened by ash and soot. They joke that they are the only Sardinians who got a tan in the dark.
The mine looks like hell, but to the miners, this is a second home.
Some have been working in these mines for decades, much like their fathers and grandfathers before them. In this impoverished region, there's no other option. The coal mines have given work to generations of migrants from all over Italy since the 1930s. No wonder the biggest town in the area is called Carbonia.
Now, the company running the mine is planning to take the carbon out of Carbonia.
Coal is now considered outdated and unprofitable, and it is rumored that the mine could close by the end of the year.
The miners' reaction was quick and simple: if you want to kick us out, we won’t come up to the surface.
EPA
Union spokesman Stefano Meletti is being helped by fellow miners after having slashed one of his wrists during a press conference of 100 Sardinian striking miners barricaded inside a coal mine in Sardinia, Italy, on Aug. 29, 2012.
At least 30 workers have been occupying the mine as they await reassurances that they can keep their jobs, and the other 417 are taking turns to show their support. Living conditions in the mine are hard, they say, but they’d rather live in the familiar darkness than try to look for other jobs.
Lorenzo Congia is on his fourth consecutive day underground. He says he has no options but to cling to the only job available to him: “We will stay here until we have the certainty that we can bring the bread back home to our families. We work underground to feed our families. Outside of this mine, we are doomed,” he said.
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His colleague, Andrea Pinna, agrees: “Our children are all unemployed and with no job prospects. If this mine closes, we won’t have anywhere to go. There’s nothing out there for us.”
On Wednesday, another miner, Stefano Meletti, slashed his wrists in front of television cameras shouting: “Is this what we have to do?” before he was wrestled to the floor by his startled colleagues. While they didn’t expect his sudden act of desperation, they say they, too, are ready to resort to “extreme measures” to keep their jobs.
They put up a white sheet with a warning, written in red letters in the Sardinian dialect: “This is the time for gunpowder." And the threat might not be entirely metaphorical.
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A few feet away from where they are stationed, an iron gate is plastered with yellow warning signs. That’s the storage room for almost 1,600 pounds of explosives, and more than a thousand detonators. They are there for mining purposes, but authorities fear that in the hands of miners who pledged to fight for their cause to the bitter end, the explosives could turn into a dangerous weapon.
Union leader Gianfranco Sau says the miners don’t want to resort to violence, but he is finding it hard to restrain them.
“It’s difficult to retrain 447 workers. We keep guard of the explosives day and night, we don’t want an exasperated worker to do something crazy," Sau said.
A miners' delegation will meet government representatives in Rome on Friday to try to give the mine a new lease on life as a storage site for carbon dioxide in order to mitigate global warming and produce clean energy.
The miners are hoping for some good news. In the permanent darkness, any ray of light will do.
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Leave a Comment:
Mama mia ! Back to making pizza`s again.
Not funny, Indy.
Italian Terrorism for Dummies:
(1) Take yourself hostage.
(2) Threaten to blow up the hostages if your demands aren't met.
Strange reaction to occupy a mine that the company wants to close. Perhaps the company can charge rent to generate a little $.
People are losing their livelihoods and others are making sport of them?
Do you people even care for anybody beside yourselves?
I don't wish bad things on other people, but it sure would change your perspective to be an aged worker and they shut your company down.
I know, I know, you would be so much better equipped to handle your demise. You're supermen.
Pathetic display of American exceptionalism. Is it any wonder why the world hates us?
Employers use to value and care for their workforce, but it's now more important for CEO's to make their millions.
The closing of this mine is a direct result of poor management.
Before you start screaming about poor market conditions, you should take a better look at China.
Has China quit burning coal?
Take a good look at these Italian miners, because the EPA thugs in the U.S. is bringing this same scenario to our nation.
Why can the U.S. government subsidize Big Oil with billions of dollars, and yet they can't/won't build scrubbers to utilize coal and bring energy independence?
I guess the world likes being held hostage to the Big Oil in the Middle East?
Poor management? You know that Italy has implemented HUGE carbon taxes right? You can't mine the coal and make money, even by selling it to China.
These miners losing their jobs are the direct result of the whole "green" movement to make regular sources of energy so expensive that other less efficient "green" solutions can be competitive.
Its the government of Italy indirectly closing this mine, not the company.
You're not very business savvy are you?
How are the major players in the industry shipping coal from further distances to China making money?
I totally agree about the EPA interference in the U.S., but China isn't paying any attention to carbon taxes.
Americans better wake up, because our resources are being shipped to China, and I'm talking more than our money.
Where do you think all this natural gas that they're extracting is going?
They're shipping it to China. How wonderful it is for corporate America to continue to rape our citizens by shipping our resources to China.
Don't tell me they can't mine coal and send it to China and make money. I've increased my wealth exponentially with coal being sold to China.
Brilliant, have a sit in 400 ft. below the earth in a mine. Brilliant, only the Italians are that smart.
Hypothetically, I own a business. The government has created an atmosphere of over regulation that makes it impossible for me to operate that business. I am losing money by staying open. So I decide to close. The employees, who have come to feel that they are somehow entitled to my supporting them, even at the expense of my own family and well being, take over my business and threaten violence. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? I DO have my own publishing business. And thankfully it is not beholden to the whims of a retail public. And I watch as this Administration systematically drives me out of business. The Communist-In-Chief (and "Disabled Voter" above) believe it is my responsibility to provide for everyone else with their hand out. BULL. I have a better plan. I will recharter my corporation off shore and move my business (and tax liability) out of the clutches of the new Socialist Movement. And if you think I am the only business considering this option, you need to re-evaluate.
Where did I say that it's your responsibility to provide for everyone with their hand out?
I thought as much. You people pretend to be intellectual and educated, and your first reaction to every comment that someone posts becomes all about your misrepresentation of your lack of comprehension.
Are you saying that employers have no responsibility to their employees?
Never mind, you don't have to answer that because you have already answered. Like Romney you show no loyalty to anyone but yourself.
Really, move your company offshore. Hmmmmm, sounds like a good Republican plan to me.
Tell you what. Why don't you just post and advertise who you are, and what your business is, and allow us to choose to not do business with you or the people who you do business with.
That shouldn't be a problem since you're not "beholden to the whims of the retail public." Let's just see if the retail public can have an influence on your consumer protected business venture.
Every legitamate business man in the world knows that the consumer drives his business. If you're not making money, then the government is just one element in a combination of factors that's causing your problems.
Why is it now that our country isn't utilizing all the various energy resources available?
That's right, Big Oil has a strangle hold on our country and won't let go.
Are you telling me that the money I made 50 years ago wasn't enough?
I have lived a lot of years, and lived through lean as well as bountiful times, however, I have always based my business and dealings upon the Golden Rule.
You can't die and take your money with you. Your family is important, but if you spoil them, they will never understand the importance of a good work ethic.
I'm a proud American and I don't mind paying taxes in order to live in a free society. I don't mind helping those who are struggling to find their way. I don't mind giving to charities, not for tax deductions, but to help with causes that have made differences in people's lives. That's the America I grew up in, and that's the country I see a lot of Greedy people wanting to destroy.
70 years ago most people in our country were common hardworking citizens. People helped one another because it was the right thing to do. We relied on each other in order to survive. Wealth began to increase, and as many became wealthier the divide became more apparent. A new generation arose that didn't rely on their neighbors for help and survival. A generation that became wealthier than their parents because what their parents had given them. This new generation became a "ME" generation whose only interests were in themselves. This "ME" generation isn't happy with making the profit margins of their fathers, but are interested in big and fast money. That is nothing short of GREED.
Societies degrade when any class or portion of their population ignore other segments. When things get out of proportion, problems become detrimental. One purpose of government is to assure the proportions are such that stagnation and inequality doesn't occur. Our country is great because we have always governed with a mix of capitalism and socialism. Things are now becoming disproportionate, and our governments failure to correct the problem is the very reason for our economic problems.
How long have you been in business? The current tax laws are basically the same as under Bush. How can your publishing business failure be blamed on this administration? Without knowing the nature of your business, I can only speculate that your business has been negatively impacted by technology, and has very little to do with governmental regulation.
Do you understand that some people who post to these boards are old retired educated professionals?
Good riddance. Be sure to sell to other countries and not to ours. The last thing we need are more leeches that offshore to avoid taxes but enrich themselves at others expenses. You critisize others for demanding that which they aren't entitled to then state you intend to exploit laws which would allow you to continue to profit off of those that allowed you to build and prosper your business without paying any taxes. Hypocrite.
If you think only of bits of news like this as reflective of the European economy imploding then your thinking should be adjusted.
What I got from reading this is that a man who wants only to earn a living was in such despair that he slashed his wrist during a news conference. Being a miner is the most dangerous job in the world and these people - these humans desperate for just an opportunity to earn a wage in the only job they know - feel have no choice but to inhabit a place most of us would be too terrified to visit, let alone work in.
Where's your compassion? 'Back to making pizzas' indeed! Try to join the human race Indy - and others here, and stop with political gripes and try to think of what is really happening in that mine and the people inside it.