Due to the mining disasters that hit Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa this year, the miners and employees of JSW S.A. are celebrating their holiday in a subdued format.
This year's celebrations began with the laying of flowers in front of the statue of Saint Barbara at the Pniówek mine. Then the delegations, including JSW board members, mine authorities and invited guests, as well as the orchestra and standard bearers marched to the Church of the Elevation of the Holy Cross in Pawłowice. The Barbórka mass was celebrated by the Metropolitan Archbishop of Katowice, Wiktor Skworc.
- The miner's job is dangerous. You can’t be sure that the next descent will end with a return to the surface. Therefore, the miner's work rightly requires discipline, forethought and professionalism, as well as concern for the safety of mining crews. Reason says that there are situations when you need to save your mine, like a host mother, from the elements, and you need to put up a dam, and you need to leave the bodies of the fallen at work in the depths of the mine. We, in Upper Silesia, understand this, and this is how things had to be done at the Pniówek mine. We devote all the more compassion to the widows of the miners killed during mining work and the rescuing of those at risk whose husbands were left there at the bottom of the mine - the archbishop said during his homily at the Pawłowice church.
Today's celebrations were attended by the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, who met at the Pniówek mine with the relatives of the miners who died and went missing in the April disaster.
- I wish that none of those who are suffering after those events had the feeling that they are alone and abandoned today. We are also talking about proceedings related to the clarification of those events and the next steps to be taken. We are all waiting for when it will be possible to proceed with the search for the miners who are still missing - said President Andrzej Duda.
The miners' holiday this year is taking place in the shadow of the two accidents that occurred in April at the Pniówek and Zofiówka mines. Nineteen miners died and another seven remain missing.
