This week Daewoo announced that unions representing workers at its passenger car plant in Poland had accepted a deal to slash 1,294 jobs from the 4,943-strong workforce. Daewoo also plans to sell off its commercial vehicle plant in Poland and a research centre in Britain. More deaths in Chinese mines China's mining industry claimed the lives of another 18 workers on February 22, when a gas blast ripped through a mine near the city of Lianyuan, in the central province of Hunan. The death toll may increase as three miners are still missing. Investigations have begun to determine the cause of the explosion and government officials ordered mines in the surrounding area to cease production and carry out safety checks.
China has the highest number of coal mining deaths in the world.
However, the real count is suspected to be much higher as government authorities downplay the number of deaths. A report in the People's Daily this week confirmed that following the explosion at a privately-owned coal mine in Hejin, in Shanxi province, on December 3, a local Communist Party official attempted to hide 38 bodies to cover up the extent of the disaster. Last year the government closed 18,000 coal mines because they breached the minimal official safety standards. Nurses in Sri Lanka strike for risk allowance More than 600 nurses working in government hospitals in the war-torn North and East provinces went on strike on Monday to demand a risk allowance similar to that paid to doctors working in the area. Doctors recently won the allowance after a series of strikes and protests.