Georgi Gospodinov: Workers in Maritsa-East mines don’t trust politicians because they have been lying to us for a long time
Interview with the chairman of the trade union of the KNSB in Maritsa-East mines on the attitude of mine workers to the just transition in the Stara Zagora region, to what extent it offers workable solutions and is fair
Vladimir Mitev, Malgorzata Kulbachevska-Figat
Georgi Gospodinov is the chairman of the KNSB trade union at Maritsa-East mines. In this capacity, he participates in various discussions related to just transition at the national level and maintains links with trade union colleagues in the region and in Europe.
The interview was taken on 15 January 2025 – a day before the formation of the cabinet of Rosen Zhelyazkov, who on the one hand has said he wants to preserve the coal industry in Bulgaria, and on the other hand is looking to absorb funds under the Recovery and Sustainability Plan by implementing reforms agreed with the EU.
Vladimir Mitev: Mr. Gospodinov, we know that the unions Podkrepa and KNSB are currently mapping the skills of the people who will be released from the Maritsa-East mines as a result of the just transition. This is the first step in the new skills training programme. What is the concept behind this mapping? What skills can people in the mines learn to reskill themselves?
Although the mapping started last month, it was not presented properly. Although both confederations are carrying it out, colleagues from labour union Podkrepa rather reject it. I do not entirely share their opinion.
For me, the mapping should have happened. It is just that in Bulgaria there always seems to be something hidden, as if the aim is just to absorb some funds. That is how our miners feel.
Is there something they are not being told?
There is a doubt that some money will be taken for this project without it being useful for the workers.
But de facto the mapping itself is useful. Even in it, one of the questions is whether you want to stay working in this sector and continue working in the complex. Another question is what kind of salary do you want to get in the future, whether you want to develop in the Stara Zagora area. These answers will then be used in the mapping analyses.
In our case, especially in Maritsa-East Mines, the mapping process is difficult. In the other regions – in Bobov Dol, in Pernik and in the private TPPs, mine. But in the state TPP and in the state mine, where we are, it is difficult.
People do not accept mapping. They are influenced by talk that those who are mapped will be the first to be laid off. They succumbed to emotions and insinuations.
Malgorzata Kulbachevska-Figat: This is what your colleague in Sofia, Ognyan Atanasov, who is responsible for the just transition in the KNSB, told us.
This is our vice-president of the KNSB. Something happened here, and I can’t tell you exactly what it is. Our people don’t accept the mapping and it’s difficult to go through this process.
I am aware that all over the world – in regions where big industries are downsizing, they are doing this thing. It has to be there. But it needs to be done to all residents, not just the workers in the mines and power plants.
To what extent do people think that if they participate in this mapping they will be fired? And is that really a correct interpretation on their part?
Not fired, but laid off.
The other thing is that our complex feeds people from four districts – Stara Zagora, Haskovo, Yambol and Sliven. Many side businesses are connected to the Maritsa-East complex. Here we come back to the fair transition.
Since the talk in 2017 about a green deal and that big investors will come here, there is absolutely nothing. Not even one small investor has come.
Our people are asking – “If I retrain, what profession should I retrain for”? Mushroom picker? Shepherd? Hairdresser?
If there is some other business and other industry around us, we will retrain in that direction. But unfortunately in Bulgaria today, if there are any statesmen among the politicians, they are pushed into a corner. In recent years politicians have been changing every 3-6 months.
There was an energy minister who wanted to do 40 000 acres of photovoltaics on our territory. It is no longer talked about at all. He is gone.
There are plans for Stara Zagora to become a hydrogen valley. And that seems to have been swept away somewhere. Now a regular government has to be formed. I don’t know what to expect from it. We have been lied to many times and we don’t trust anyone anymore.
What sane person is going to tear down their finished house and wait for a new one to be built somewhere? First the foundation has to be laid, start building something new and then tear down the old. It’s obvious now that the complex has no alternative.
Even when the TPP Contour-Global works, we still import electricity. In 2022, we had a record coal production – nearly 35 million tonnes of coal. All the profits went into the Energy Security Fund. The Maritsa-East complex and Kozloduy NPP have supported business in this country in the difficult times of recent years (as the Energy Security Fund was used to help with the price of electricity for business – ed.). The next moment things turn around and we are told – “Get out!”. It doesn’t work like that.
We do not have statesmen who will bang on the table and say that the Maritsa-East complex is critical infrastructure, that there are wartime stocks here – which is a requirement under the concession agreement. Nobody pays attention to these things. When the sun rises and it gets warm, we are always told that we are superfluous. Then when it gets cold, they remember to thank the miners for saving us. It doesn’t work like that.
There is a thesis that Maritsa-East mines are given subsidies to keep them going.
There is no such thing. We are subsidising the entire Bulgarian economy, we are subsidising everyone else. If we had listened to the politicians to destroy the complex, to make people redundant, who would now be providing the electricity and the balance in the system?
In 2020, again, something like this was said – that the yield had fallen, that we had to lay off workers and could do without our plants. If we had to, we would import electricity.
Then we agreed with the mine management not to take on any new workers and to reduce the staff naturally. Then in 2021 and 2022 the mine had to run at full load. 2022 was a record year in terms of production.
It must be understood that there needs to be contingency planning. We do not know what will happen. There is talk of a new financial crisis and a change in geopolitics. That is why the workers in the Maritsa-East complex and in the mine itself are important.
If we had listened to the politicians then, in 2022, we would not have been able to give this record production. Back then, the whole business in Bulgaria survived on our backs, and now, since April-May last year, we have been on credit from the Bulgarian Energy Holding.
In our conversations and in publications in the media, it has been pointed out that the future of the region after possible decarbonisation is to develop specific industries – mechatronics, agriculture and hydrogen technology. What is your opinion on these intentions? To what extent are they realistic to develop and to what extent are they attractive to miners?
These are just wishes. Even one construction peg is not placed. One lump of earth has not been moved so that something new can be built.
Our labour is hard physical labour. Everyone would like to go to a better place. If there were such factories, there would not even be a need to make the effort. People would go to the better place by themselves. But there isn’t.
These ideas are the talk of politicians. Let someone show me a project right now for something new in the region. This is talk about absorbing funds.
There are hydrogen projects that should have been started by now but have not been started yet…
From what I hear, hydrogen technologies want a lot of water. I don’t trust that these projects will happen. We had a meeting with people from Greece a while back. They have made a hydrogen plant in Greece. One of the conditions, it is mandatory that there must be a port, a highway and a pipeline nearby. They said it had been built, but they weren’t working on it at the time because they didn’t have a market.
There is an idea for a hydrogen pipeline from Greece to here.
There is an idea for both hydrogen and natural gas pipelines. To me, this is all wishful thinking. And it will not happen in the coming years. In the next 5-10 years, I do not believe it will happen.
There’s also an argument that if these activities that are being done now, like the mapping, are not done, just at some point the whole industry will be shut down. How do you view an option where nothing is done? Workers don’t trust politicians. The Fair Transition Plan activities are not being done. What will happen then?
Trust will return when there is some real action on the table. At the moment, for six or seven years now, there is only empty talk. Just talk. Our politicians are wondering how to steal some European funds. If something is built in Western Europe with these funds, that is great. Here, there is nothing. Only lies. That is why our people do not believe. I don’t believe either.
Are there any politicians at the national level or at the local level who have been in contact with you?
All politicians communicate with us until they take power. From then on, run away from them.
At the moment, the state wants to force commitments on us through a company that are detrimental to us. It wants to take our land. They want to take over our activities and this company can hire outside people to do our work, i.e. to replace us. There is no way we can agree to this.
We have three decisions of the National Assembly to preserve the Maritsa-East complex. We asked them: ‘Should the decisions of the National Assembly be revoked?’ They say, ‘yes’. Yes, but no. We will not agree.
What activity will this company you are talking about carry out?
Our concession contract is for coal mining and reclamation. They are talking to us about a ‘Greek model’ of operation. Except that the Greek model is for a privately owned closed mine, which I believe has run roughshod over the European Union. There, a company is formed which takes the land that has to be reclaimed, because the polluter has to pay, the private owner gives it to the state, then the state hires him to work again, something of that kind, I did not say it exactly, and the EU de facto gives him money for reclamation for the closure.
But we are now a functioning mine. And we are a state mine. In our case, the appetites of the people who are in the shadows around the government are for the land. We have huge areas, we have 150 thousand acres of land. They are clamouring for the land and they are wondering in what way they can cheat us to take our land.
Tomorrow we are going to meet in relation to a bill concerning this company. One of the purposes and opportunities that this bill gives him is to cede our obligation under the concession agreement to reclaim it. In this way, we will also be handing over to it the land that is to be reclaimed. It is said there that, for example, you might be a mining specialist, financed by somebody to provide you with equipment, then the company might assign you to do that reclamation.
Our syndicate has said for a long time that the last lump to be moved in this complex should be with our people, with our equipment. We don’t want anything else. We want us to do everything.
They have been telling the media that it is a matter of using 400 million leva (204,5 million euro) under the Recovery and Sustainability Plan, and de facto it is less than 50 million leva (25,57 million euro), against which they are to take our land for reclamation. The draft law says that the Council of Ministers can assign, can order by decree, other activities to this enterprise. If the government changes tomorrow, as it does in Bulgaria – it changes every six months – and someone else comes along with more outlandish ideas, they could wipe us out completely. This is our struggle at the moment.
The other struggle is for mining or energy leave, as in Poland and Germany. You have in Poland, as far as I know, probably over 20 mining laws. We try to catch all these opportunities with one first law. But it is difficult.
What has been your experience of communicating with colleagues about just transition in different countries in the region – Poland, the Czech Republic, etc.?
We were in Germany at RWE. We saw their IPG programme. Then some of my colleagues got in touch with colleagues in Poland. Last year in May, the idea of a mining energy holiday was pushed here. Today we talked about this in a working group in Sofia. Tomorrow we will be in Sofia again in connection with the idea of a company that would carry out the reclamation.
One of our mines is about to close. Why cannot Europe, if it is concerned about us, put this money into this mine?
And what do they tell you when you ask them this thing?
They don’t answer us. They keep us out of the discussions. They just want us to agree without any guarantees for the people and the mine.
They are keeping us out of the negotiations with the European Commission. The Ministry is negotiating. And what they are negotiating is not clear to us.
Until a few weeks ago they said that this enterprise was a requirement of the European Commission. Last week it appeared that this undertaking was a requirement of the Bulgarian state, not the EC. They were only justifying it with the alleged demand of European institutions.
I repeat again. We simply do not believe them. We have been lied to a lot. We have no statesmen. We have politicians, but not statesmen.
Are the European trade unions giving you any help?
Both miners’ federations and confederations of the KNSB and Podkrepa are communicating with European partners. Personally, there is less communication with us here on the ground. It usually happens in Sofia, at a higher level.
Here the whole region, the municipality of Galabovo, the municipality of Radnevo, the whole business except agriculture and services – everything here is connected to the complex. The companies in the region work with the Maritsa-East complex.
And at one point, when the Contour-Global plant closed and it was announced that 300 people were laid off, about 200 people who were security, cleaning and other services were laid off. But nothing was said about them. There are estimates that 120 000 people are directly and indirectly affected by the possible future closure of the complex. Where will these people work?
On 25 April 2024, we were in Sofia for a rally. We were then promised 250 million leva (127,83 million euro) a year. I then asked the Minister when this money would come. He said, ‘In a month’. To date, there has not been a penny and it is not clear whether anything will come. All these promises are being forgotten as we have elections twice a year. Loud promises are made and in the end there is nothing. That is why our people do not believe.
Now I remember that in the near future a solar panel factory will be built in Stara Zagora. This is perhaps the first major plant to open here in recent years. How can we believe that the region will retain its personnel, livelihoods and incomes? So we cling to each other and protect ourselves as best we can. How long we will put up with all this I do not know. But we will not give up easily. By no means.
As I understand it, you are not in a position where you can come out with your assumptions…
There is no real political power. There is no one with the resources to make decisions that you can sit down and talk to.
But do you have any vision of your own, of how the fair pre-pod should go, or how some things still need to be done, rather than just waiting to be persuaded by the suggestions of others?
For me the most important thing is to secure some livelihood here. It does not matter what the jobs are, but they must have more added value. 60% of the engineering and technical staff of the Stara Zagora region work in the complex. We have specialists. We have people. Let them provide investors. But let there be livelihoods in the region so that people who leave the mine are retrained and go there. And there is nothing like that.
There is a box factory. It doesn’t work like that. It has been the same for years. There is nothing in return.
We are in a very good place logistically. There is a port 160 km away. The capital is 200 km away. The road between Ruse and Istanbul via Svilengrad passes from here. There is a motorway. We have 110,220,400kWt power lines. We have water. We have everything. Why don’t we make an industrial zone on our territories?
What’s the fair transition participation of local governments?
They are subservient to the central government. If something doesn’t happen in Sofia, then it doesn’t happen here.
Can you explain the mining energy holiday? What specifically do you propose its content to be and what are the numbers that are associated with your proposal?
This is an idea taken from Germany. Five years before retirement age, what some call early retirement would happen. I call it mining or energy leave.
To what extent do politicians – at least those who are responsible for energy – have an idea of your activities, the problems in the industry, etc.?
One minister, a prominent leader of Change Continues, was telling us that 7,000 people would be working in the reclamation company. We told him that the whole mines did not have 7,000 people. Then he immediately changed the number to 1000-2000. That is what our politicians understand.
Are there any politicians you would give as an example?
There are politicians who are concerned about us. They help us, but unofficially. I said at the beginning that they are pushed into a corner. There are serious and smart people in all parties. There are specialists, there are knowledgeable and capable people.
I hope that Europe will begin to sober up from green populism. The timescales and numbers that are set out in the green transition plans are unrealistic. Let us hope that European politicians think about their peoples.
If you are told that the air in Stara Zagora is polluted because of the Maritsa-East complex, what will you say?
There was pollution here when the SS-23 missiles were burning in Zmeevo. Pollution was felt then.
I have a question. How come there was no pollution until 2005 and there was no talk of pollution at all?
At the TPP-2, the desulphurizer is Japanese. And one of the best technologies. At Contour-Global, the desulphuriser is also new, American.
Talk of bad air is base speculation. I will not comment on the Brickell plant. It is smaller. But I find it a downright lie that the dirty air comes from TPP-2 or the complex.
I have read some writings about how many people died from the bad air. If that were true, there would be no people alive here.
And if you ask me about the pollution, I was in Kraków, long before the Covid-19. When I got there, people were walking around wearing masks, and I wondered why. I opened the window of the hotel at night and I understood what dirty air meant.
Indeed, Krakow is the Polish city with the worst air. People there heat with wood.
This interview has been prepared with the support of Journalismfund, within the scope of a broader project concerning just transition in Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and Czechia in a comparative perspective.
Photo: Georgi Gospodinov (source: Georgi Gospodinov)
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