Changing the mining industry in the heart of Silesia

The development of coal mining in the Upper Silesian region began in the seventeenth century. Along with the development of this branch of industry, they began to form the new villages, towns and entire agglomerations in the surroundings. Even before the First World War the Polish mining industry employed over 150 thousand miners. This sector is characterized by a high degree of mechanization of work and technical progress. Miner profession from its inception was set on a pedestal by giving it a number of privileges. Mining industry introduced earliest pension and health insurance, and normalized length of the working day. Expansion of class consciousness, trade unions and political parties, resulted that the Silesia from the start was ahead of other mining and industrial regions at least by one generation. There have passed many generations from bloom years of mining to its current form of activity. At present, the global reorganization and restructuring of the industry hit also Polish mining industry.