Spanish Miners Stage Protest Rally in Madrid Thousands of Spanish coal miners fearing for their livelihoods because of government cuts set off fireworks Wednesday as they marched up Madrid's main avenue, some after trudging nearly three weeks from the country's beleaguered mining regions. The miners, wearing hardhats and carrying walking sticks, walked with relatives and sympathizers under a hot sun, surrounded by huge puffs of firework smoke. They converged on the capital to protest a 63 percent cut in subsidies to mining companies imposed by the government as it faces recession and a bloated deficit. Some had walked 18 days from northern and eastern mining regions and were received as heroes in a march Tuesday night to Puerta del Sol, one of the city's main plazas. Miners rest during a march along the street after walking for more than 20 days from the northern Asturias and Leon regions, as many as 400 kilometers (250 miles), on their way to Puerta del Sol, the Spanish capital's most emblematic square in Madrid, Spain Tuesday, July 10, 2012. Spanish coal miners angered by huge cuts in government subsidies for their industry converged on Madrid Tuesday for protest rallies after walking nearly three weeks under a blazing sun from the pits where they eke out a living. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) Close Miner David Menendez, 30, from the Asturias region in the north, came down by bus with relatives and fellow miners. He has worked in the pits for 10 years and fears losing his job in an economy with few prospects for anything else. He wore a miner's hard hat and a black T-shirt that read "Proud to be a miner" on the front and "The miners' struggle" on the back. "I'm here to defend my work," Menendez said. He added that he was outraged by new tax hikes and austerity measures announced by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government just before the protest. "Rajoy is committing crimes against the economy and killing it," Menedez said. It's just cuts and more cuts. The new spending cuts, designed to cut €65 billion ($80 billion) of state budgets by 2015, include a wage cut for civil servants and members of the national parliament and a new wave of closures at state-owned companies.