The Wujek Coal Mine (KWK Wujek) was established in 1904 under the name Oheim Mine, although extraction had already begun in November 1899, when the first chunks of coal were brought to the surface. In 1922, the mine became part of the Second Polish Republic and was renamed Wujek. During the 1930s, it was the site of numerous strikes and worker protests, initiated by socialist trade unions and labor organizations striving to improve working conditions. In 1938-1939, the mine produced approximately 5,000 tons of coal daily. In 1939, the mine was under German control. After 1945, the historical Polish name “Wujek” was restored.
The mine was the site of a brutal suppression of a miners’ strike on December 16, 1981. During the assault by police and military units on the facility, which had been taken over by striking miners, 9 miners were killed. The pacification of the mine and the memory of the murdered miners became one of the symbols of resistance against communism and the authorities of the People’s Republic of Poland. In 2017, the mine was taken over by one of Poland’s largest mining companies, PGG, and in 2021 it merged with another Katowice mine, Staszic, forming a large multi-department mining complex under the name KWK Wujek-Staszic.
The mine’s dedicated railway siding was built in 1899 and continuously facilitated the transport of coal and rocks from the site until 2021. The siding was decommissioned after the merger of Wujek Mine with Staszic Mine due to the implementation of an underground system for transporting coal and waste from the mine. A similar fate befell the coal processing plant located on the railway siding. There are plans to separate the area of the former railway siding and technical infrastructure and convert the land into investment areas.
