STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Tuesday, 10 July 2012

[xchrom]

43. Spanish miners converging on Madrid for protests

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_SPAIN_MINERS_STRIKE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-07-10-09-19-31

MADRID (AP) -- Coal miners angered by huge cuts in subsidies converged on Madrid Tuesday for protest rallies after walking nearly three weeks under a blazing sun from the pits where they eke out a living.

The union UGT said two columns of miners, many wearing hard hats and holding walking sticks, will meet up in a town outside Madrid in the early evening, then march downtown at night, trudging along major avenues to the Puerta del Sol, the Spanish capital's most emblematic square.

One group of about 160 has walked all the way from the northern Asturias and Leon regions, as many as 400 kilometers (250 miles) away; about 40 have made an almost equally long trek from Aragon in the northeast.

Their complaints include a 63 percent cut in subsidies to coal mining companies struggling to maintain a share of the Spanish energy market against gas-fired electrical plants and renewable energy sources, while fighting to hold their own against cheaper imported coal.