Spanish miners dig deep to keep their jobs

Coal miners move on carrying handmade rockets during clashes in Mieres Figaredo, Spain. Photo / AP

Cristian wears the yellow and blue Asturian flag of his homeland tied around his dusty overalls.

Olga, his mother, is writing a dedication on it that reads: "You are the hope of the mining valleys."

She wants to lend her strength to her son for the miners' three-week protest march, which set off on Saturday and ends in Madrid on July 12 - the most likely date for the Prime Minister's appearance before Parliament to report on Spain's bank bailout.

Cristian's father, Jose Manuel, 49, a miner who took early retirement, watches from a distance. "I was a miner for 20 years; my father was also a miner and so are my two sons. I don't know what will happen to us if the mines are shut down. Those making their way to Madrid are our last hope."

Eighty miners are setting out on the 400km journey from Mieres, a town near the Asturian capital, Oviedo.

The "black march" will cover 19 stages, with miners joining from Leon, Teruel and Palencia along the way.

About 200 are expected to arrive in the Spanish capital next month, one of many acts planned to protest at the proposed 63 per cent cuts in coal subsidies already approved by the European Union.

It is all or nothing now: as Jorge Exposito, 26, says: "There won't be any more chances." Exposito works at the Candin mine, where five miners have locked themselves in, with three from the Santiago mine, for 25 days now as they wait for a solution. About 8000 miners in provinces across Spain have been on strike since May 31.

"We will not stop until this is resolved," says Exposito. "They are stealing our future, and we are not going to let our families starve."

On June 18, a general strike in the mining valleyshad a turnout of nearly 100 per cent. There have also been road and rail barricades in all the affected areas, with burning tyres and logs being used to block the railroad tracks.

- Observer