ABSTRACT
Chapter six is devoted to the role of professional mining associations in the operations and sustainable development of extraction enterprises. It begins with determining the desirability of the existence of trade unions and the extent of their impact on the functioning of enterprises, industries and economies. Next, key legal regulations relating to trade union organisations are described using universal rules for their creation, as well as legislative examples from the examined coal mining regions. The second section describes good and bad practices of trade union organisations and their impact on the sustainable development of coal mining enterprises, analysing the extreme levels of their existence, from a total lack of to an above average number of trade union organisations preventing mining enterprises from operating. The third section presents the results of surveys on trade union expectation and the level of understanding of the SD rules, it likewise summarises the benefits and threats related to trade union activities in coal mining so far. It also defines their place in the process of balancing the operations of enterprises and extraction industries, by rationally formulating the principles of their appointment and communication with other internal and external stakeholders.
