3,000 demonstrate in support of Spanish miners

Around 3,000 people marched Sunday in northern Spain in support of a group of 52 miners who have shut themselves in a local mine, the daily newspaper El Mundo reported.

The demonstrators marched though Guardo, in the northern Palencia province, near where the miners are into the 11th day of their protest, in a bid to get unpaid wages for August from mining company Union Minera del Norte (Uminsa).

The marchers called on the government, the employers and the unions to guarantee the future of coal mining in the region up until 2014.

On Friday, about 150 miners and their supporters temporarily blocked a highway and railroad in Bembire, northern Spain, burning tyres to protest the unpaid wages.

Miners in several parts of Spain are protesting over unpaid wages and to demand government aid to the coal industry.

Up until February, government subsidies helped guarantee coal purchases in Spain. But Madrid ended the subsidies in the wake of objections from the European Commission.