Luddites of the Twenty-First Century? The Influence of Trade Unions in Hard Coal Mining on Sector Reforms in Poland and the Czech Republic

Abstract

There are only two European Union (EU) states where hard coal is still mined: Poland and the Czech Republic. One of the key interest groups in the hard coal mining industry are trade unions. They are particularly strong in this sector, almost entirely controlled by the state, in Poland—without their approval, it is in fact impossible to implement any significant reforms. The main goal of the article is to explain the influence of trade unions operating in the hard coal mining sector in Poland and the Czech Republic on the results of the reforms of this sector carried out in 2015–2019. The framework for empirical analysis is the theoretical output on interest groups and the power resources approach. Measuring the influence of an interest group on the decision-making process is one of the greatest challenges in research on interest groups. However, the empirical analysis allows us to conclude that the purposes of mining trade unions both in Poland and in the Czech Republic were consistent, that the shape of the reforms introduced in 2015–2019 was convergent with these goals, and that the activity of trade unions had a very big impact on these reforms. However, in the long run, hard coal mining in Europe is in decline and trade unions are only trying to stop what is inevitable.