Valentina Zurru { 22 images } Created 20 Jan 2014
Valentina Zurru, miner
Valentina Zurru is 46, at 18 she got her diploma at the Asproni mine tech institute in the near town of Iglesias in Sardinia. She was the only women in her class. After one year she started working in Carbosulcis.
The Carbosulcis is the last coal mine in Italy. The history of the society and of the workers began to be very hard since 1995 when the Carbosulcis was put on sale. The coal was not as important as it was in the past year and nobody participate to the auction. After that a hard fight between the owners and the workers unions began.In the 2012 the workers occupied the mine remaining at -373m for more than a week.
Valentina is a daughter of a miner, and her future has always been in the coal mine, she says. She is one of the two women working in the underground. She started as a grisouist, checking the gas in the tunnels, the grisous is a very dangerous gas that can be cause of explosions. After 16 years she decided that she had to move to something more interesting and she started working in the stabilization of the galleries, ‘l’imbullonatura’. It’s a modern technique that guarantees the solidity of the galleries after that the robot that cuts the coal has dig the tunnel. She fallows the cut, she is on the front line of the work. At the same time she has to check the situation of the old tunnels, checking the stability of the rocks preventing the collapsing of the tunnel and landslides.
She wakes up every morning at 5:27, because 27 is the pay day of the month, she leaves her home town Iglesias and arrives in Nuraxi Figus where the mines are. In this are every family had someone involved in the coal industry. Every day she goes down in the Monte Sinni mine to check the gallery at -373m and -400m, the extraction points are about -500m.
The work shift it’s about six long, but her role is to follow the extraction. If something goes wrong she have to ensure the workers security, so she have to stay untill everything is fixed, sometimes after more than 12 hours. She nows when she goes in, but never when she get out.
Even in the hardest condition she is always at her best, red lipstick and a light makeup. She says that this is the way she is outside the mine, so why she should change inside?
Valentina Zurru is 46, at 18 she got her diploma at the Asproni mine tech institute in the near town of Iglesias in Sardinia. She was the only women in her class. After one year she started working in Carbosulcis.
The Carbosulcis is the last coal mine in Italy. The history of the society and of the workers began to be very hard since 1995 when the Carbosulcis was put on sale. The coal was not as important as it was in the past year and nobody participate to the auction. After that a hard fight between the owners and the workers unions began.In the 2012 the workers occupied the mine remaining at -373m for more than a week.
Valentina is a daughter of a miner, and her future has always been in the coal mine, she says. She is one of the two women working in the underground. She started as a grisouist, checking the gas in the tunnels, the grisous is a very dangerous gas that can be cause of explosions. After 16 years she decided that she had to move to something more interesting and she started working in the stabilization of the galleries, ‘l’imbullonatura’. It’s a modern technique that guarantees the solidity of the galleries after that the robot that cuts the coal has dig the tunnel. She fallows the cut, she is on the front line of the work. At the same time she has to check the situation of the old tunnels, checking the stability of the rocks preventing the collapsing of the tunnel and landslides.
She wakes up every morning at 5:27, because 27 is the pay day of the month, she leaves her home town Iglesias and arrives in Nuraxi Figus where the mines are. In this are every family had someone involved in the coal industry. Every day she goes down in the Monte Sinni mine to check the gallery at -373m and -400m, the extraction points are about -500m.
The work shift it’s about six long, but her role is to follow the extraction. If something goes wrong she have to ensure the workers security, so she have to stay untill everything is fixed, sometimes after more than 12 hours. She nows when she goes in, but never when she get out.
Even in the hardest condition she is always at her best, red lipstick and a light makeup. She says that this is the way she is outside the mine, so why she should change inside?
