They search, they check, they move for 1,000 feet, put a curtain across and establish what is known as a fresh air base.

If you can't run and move your feet, then you're useless. I don't want to be known as the biggest. I want to be known as the best.

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.

Every coal miner knows that that's the very last resort, to barricade yourself somewhere. You don't want to do that unless everything else fails.

Those operators that do not pay their fines in a timely manner, they should not be able to operate. They're making all kinds of money.

Coal mining is an industry rife with mismanagement, corruption, greed and an almost blatant disregard for the safety, health and quality of life of its work force. Everyone knows this. Everyone has always known it.