Workers Read Zaplata and Get Overtime Pay

In our newspapers, brochures and leaflets, we often give advice to workers and informtion on their legal rights. This information is also found on the internet, on pages we work on such as Pracownik or CIA. In Warsaw there is a labour law library available in the Infoshop as well.

Some workers at a bakery found out from us that, among other things, because a public holiday fell on Saturday, they were entitled to another day off in lieu of that. Normally, the people at the bakery work on Saturday and the boss forced them to make up the lost day, even though they were entitled to a day off. After some consultation on the issue of working hours, they found out where their rights were being infringed and even that they were being cheated by the boss. Upon confronting him, they were financially compensated and the boss, who claims he wasn’t aware of the regulations, promised to abide by the law.

Read more!

Protest and Wildcat Strike: Bus Drivers Angry but have no Effective Strategy for Struggle

The public transport system in Warsaw is controlled by ZTM, (the Municipal Transport Board) but various companies are contracted to operate Warsaw's buses. The largest company, MZA, is operated by the City of Warsaw but also several private operators run bus lines. These companies usually have won contracts through public tenders. One of these companies is PKS Grodzisk Mazowiecki (further PKS GM) which is a privatized "worker-run company". (Such companies in Poland usually are worker shareholder schemes, quite far from any idea of collective self-management by the workers.)

PKS Grodzisk Mazowiecki, like most other companies which pay shit wages, has trouble finding people to work and recruits people from impoverished areas of Poland and the Ukraine . In May, members of Union of Syndicalists (ZSP) heard about problems people were having in PKS GM from some of the Ukrainian drivers.

Drivers are expected to work very long hours, despite the fact that work time regulations clearly limit the hours a driver can work to 9 per day and require that they have two free days per week. However, it is not uncommon that the drivers were made to work 10, 12 and even up to 17 hours per day – without overtime pay. Many Ukrainian drivers worked 60-75 hours a week or even more. This is not only abusive, but extremely dangerous for both the workers and passengers; one bus driver fell asleep at the wheel in May and had a serious accident.


PKS GM also committed other infractions and abuses. Members of ZSP documented how drivers had money taken out of their wages (even up to almost 50% of their salaries) for going over "gas limits". The company set strict limits (which they often don't tell the drivers about) for how much gas should be used during a typical route. If a driver gets caught in one of Warsaw's notorious traffic jams and burns more fuel than the limit, this gets docked out of their salaries.

Other problems that workers had included that fact that PKS GM were holding workers' passports so that they couldn't leave and that the company was holding the drivers' licenses. Not to mention poor living conditions, etc.

On May 13, workers held a wildcat strike. Not all of them went on strike. Mostly it was the Ukrainian drivers, although a few Polish drivers supported the protest. We went to talk to the workers and see if there was anything we could do.

Basically, workers in this position have limited choices. They can take radical action, but then they should have a plan: storm the office of the company, make an action to get in the media, block the streets or the routes where scabs were driving, or some sort of radical direct action. Or they could go the legal route and
file suits against their employees. Unfortunately it turned out that many
of the Ukrainian workers were not convinced that anything they would do could help them.

It wasn't exactly true. Some pressure was put on PKS GM. A few articles got into even the mainstream news, we also gathered evidence of the firm's violations, sent them to the appropriate authorities, sent them out to the city, politicians, the transit board, etc. so that should the workers want to pursue legal action, the documentation would be there in Polish. Had the workers decided to organize themselves and take action, whether direct action or legal action, they would be in a good position to stop the abuse.

On May 15, Zenon Marek, the head of PKS GM came to the depot and gave out envelops filled with cash to the striking bus drivers. Of course this was done without any receipts or calculation as to how much was really owed to people. But it was enough to calm down some people, unfortunately. Additionally, drivers were given a 10-day vacation to go back to Ukraine. Ostensibly, this rest was to make up for being overworked, but in reality it was just another strike-breaking technique. Unfortunately there wasn't much we could do to convince people that they need to stay and fight at that moment so we agreed to meet in June.

The bus drivers we knew are no longer working for PKS GM. There was conflicting information as to whether they just quit or whether they were not allowed back. We were getting different information from people we spoke to. Disturbingly, it seems that rumours were being spread about the Ukrainian bus drivers. One Polish driver told us the problem with the gas was that the Ukrainians had been stealing it; it isn't clear whether the source of the rumour is the boss or whether some Polish drivers started it, but apparently new Polish drivers hear that explanation for the labour problems. Some workers seemed very scared to talk to us. Others told us different stories: that the payments were made correctly this month, or that they had illegal deductions made. We are still trying to work out this conflicting information but it seems now that the company is selectively abusing the workers and that the new guys, the ones just recruited, with no knowledge of Polish, with their passports confiscated, are the ones most likely to have their rights abused.

At the same time, workers in the other bus companies are also dissatisfied, but the workers and unions have not decided to try to get together and cooperate. In fact, the workers in the different bus companies more or less defacto compete against each other. This is especially true since contracts with the city awarded by public tender usually go to the lowest bidder, so in giving this work this way, ZTM is encouraging bad labour practices since these firms offer low prices by overworking people and paying bad wages.

The City Council had allocated money for bus drivers from MZA to get wage increases, but the management of MZA instead decided that this money would be turned into an efficiency bonus. Last year drivers had threatened to strike unless they received more money. This year, some unionists organized a protest on June 5th demanding better working conditions but it was not a grassroots action organized or attended by the workers - instead it was a union action mostly attended by union funtionaries, even from other cities.

Of course the workers of MZA need to be more pro-active and not leave this struggle up to union leaders. MZA has already started hiring bus drivers from Belarus as "an experiment". Rather than improving working conditions so that Polish drivers will consider working in Poland, instead of Ireland, it's more convenient to find some people who have lower expectations - and who better than workers trying to escape the misery of Lukashenko's regime.

A sad thing may also be that some Polish workers may feel resentment towards these workers or may be inclined against them. Apparently some drivers in PKS GM were eager to believe in stereotypes about "crooks from the East" and the bosses used this against the workers. By no fault of their own, these workers are used as pawns by the bosses against other workers who are fighting for better conditions.

Managers from MZA also openly spoke about why they started to hire women bus drivers: they were more likely to do their work, not make trouble, and to stay on the job than men. Of 3000 bus drivers from MZA, only a couple of dozen are women.

Although salaries in MZA differ, most drivers start out at less than 400 euros a month. In Warsaw, this is not a living wage. You can only survive frugally on such wages if you have very cheap housing and are not paying commerical rent, just common charges. If you agree to live like the Ukrainian bus drivers at PKS Grodzisk - 4 people to a 10 sq. meter room on bunk beds in barracks built from containers - then you can even manage to save something from this kind of salary.

All of the workers have got to get together in common struggle for decent wages but for now, they are divided, passive and not resolute, Direct action, with the support of passengers, who also have everything to gain from the overthrow of the elites and bosses who control the transport board, is clearly the way forward for the drivers. Read more!

Shut Down EU Migrant Hunters!

Actions against Frontex

Frontex is the EU agency which deals with hunting down migrants, intercepting boat people, organizing charter deportations, training and coordinating armed border defense teams and border guards, spying on migrants and other heinous acts. With the slogans "No Borders, No Nations, Stop Deportations" and "Shut Down Frontex", we went to its headquarters.

On June 5-6, activists from many different countries came to Warsaw to protest against the deadly policies of Frontex, the EU agency which conducts migrant hunting operations, trains border guards and special units to hunt down people crossing so-called "national borders" and which helps to coordinate and implement EU immigration policy. Frontex has its headquarters in Warsaw.

On June 5, the second of two transnational conferences took place. (A more complete account of the conference should appear later.) The conference was opened by Laure Akai with presentations by Amadou Mbow, a human rights activist from Mauretania, Devi Sachetti from Italy, who deals with issues of migrant rights, including the issue of precarity and migrant labour, Vincent de Jong from Holland, who is active in resistance against detention and deportation in Holland, Georgios Maniatis from Greece and Hagen Kopp from Germany. The speakers presented information about the Frontex operations near the coast of Africa and their consequences, the operations in Libya and the Mediterraen and Agean Seas as well as an overview of Frontex operations, the ideology behind this and our arguments against this regime. It was pointed out during the presentations and later discussions how destructive these policies are and how the migrants can be victimized twice - for example, by the practices of some businesses which undermine their traditional livelihoods at home and then by the policies of the countries these businesses tend to come from, which seek to exclude people.

On June 6, a demonstration was held in front of Frontex headquarters. People from many countries were present, people from various social movements, some refugees living in Poland as well. The protestors demand that Frontex be shut down and that freedom of movement should be given to all, that there be an end to descrimination of all sorts against immigrants. The sleazy head of Frontex, Ilkka Laitinen, came out to try to assure the press that he's a nice, decent guy who's just doing his job, which most people agree with. He invited some people in to speak with him but, just like any two-faced, teflon politician, he tried to deflect all criticism by using Eichmann's defense and pretended to not know anything about migrants suffering because of Frontex's work. He asked people to please inform people should they hear of any problems. As if the fact that people came thousands of miles to protest was no indication that something was going wrong.

The protestors made some speeches and had many slogans against borders in general, against deportation, against Frontex, etc. Afterwards, a demonstration was held. People went to the Presidential Palace to protest Poland's immigration policies, in particular it's agreement with the Vietnamese government to deport 5000 Vietnamese people. The Polish border police, along with Vietnamese security forces, carried out a number of raids recently in which Vietnamese people were beaten, detained and deported. This government agreement has driven many of Poland's Vietnamese (70,000 people in Warsaw) underground.

Afterwards activists met and agreed to continue working on this issue, to make the issue more known and to provide a deeper analysis of the processes, including appeals to working class people not to be fooled by the divisive ideology of the statists and capitalists which pits working people against each other.

The anti-Frontex activities were ended by a concert on June 7th.

Photos: http://cia.bzzz.net/warszawa_demonstracja_przeciwko_frontexowi#comment-38784
http://www.poland.indymedia.org/pl/2008/06/36790.shtml

Video: http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=1vD16bjhCf4

Audio links (in English):
1. Bernd Kasparek
http://radio.indymedia.org/en/node/16895
2. Tobias Pflüger
http://radio.indymedia.org/en/node/16894
3. Amadou Mbow http://radio.indymedia.org/en/node/16893

More info on Frontex:
www.noborder.org
www.frontex.info.pl
http://frontexwatch.wordpress.com/
Related Link: http://www.frontex.info.pl
Read more!

Stop Price Hikes!

In May 2008, ZSP started a campaign against rising prices, (In Szczecin Workers Initiative is working together on the campaign.) In the last few years, the prices on basic goods and services have risen at a much faster rate than wages. The neoliberal press boast of rising wages, but only a small group of elite are earning significantly more money than before. Most people's salaries don't keep ip with the price of inflation.

One area where people are most greatly hit is in housing. The price of buying or renting a flat has increased tremendously, in some places well over 200% just in the last 3-4 years. The cost of medical care has risen, and not only the cost of prescription drugs; as the state underfunds and shuts down hospitals and the state healthcare system is in ruins, a majority of people now pay twice for health care - they use private health care of pay extra to hospitals for "special services" while still having obligatory state insurance payments taken out of their salaries. The state also pushes more and more of the costs related to education on students and their families.

While the busineses of the world sell their goods in Poland at prices equa; to or sometimes higher than in other countries, they keep wages much lower. The workers at the Cadbury factory which replace the jobs of hundreds of people in England earn only a quarter or a third of what their British counterparts were making, but the price of the chocolate is more or less the same.

The campaign against rising prices is also a campaign for rising wages.

On June 2, members of ZSP joined a picket protesting against increased transport fares in Warsaw. Prior to the price increase, flyers were given our to passengers both in relation to the working conditions of bus drivers and calling for a fare strike. Although nobody really headed the call to mobilize for a strike, there was some passenger resistance for a few days at the beginning of June.

Due to the greed of ZTM (the Municipal Transport Board), they decided they would decrease the commission kiosks would get for selling tickets, So many kiosks decided they wouldn't sell tickets as a protest. Whent he time came for people to buy tickets, there were none in many of the kiosks. The places that had them quickly sold
our and ZTM-run points were overrun by people looking for tickets. Faced with huge crowds, many people just decided to go without tickets. Some people jammed the ticket machines on buses. When controllers came, many people just yelled at them and chased them off.

During the picket, one speaker from ZSP pointed out that although ZTM claimed that they had to raise prices because of rising fuel costs, most buses in Warsaw are run by subcontractors - companies that won public tenders and who receive a fixed rate per kilometer. Thus ZTM pays the same despite costs. Also it was pointed out that some companies take rising costs out of the workers' salaries - for example PKS Grodzisk Mazowiecki which takes money out of wgaes when drivers use "too much" gas.

ZSP handed out leaflets calling for the socialization of public transport to be run by workers and the public in cooperation, on anarchist principles.

On June 6th, members of Wroclaw ZSP held a picket against price increases in that city. The activists have a poster / information campaign going and are criticizing, among other things, how public money is spent. They insist that as we are forced to pay taxes to the state, we should have a say on how public money is spent and that we need to insist that money go to cover basic and urgent social needs, such as health care and education. Other people from anarchist and autonomous groups took part in the picket.

On the day prior to the picket, the secret police paid a visit to the home of the person who registered the event, and also to his neighbours, trying to intimidate the activist. (He doesn't live at that address, so the police used hard talk to warn and scare his parents.) They left a message that our comrade should stop his political activity. It is not clear that this event is related directly to the picket, which by itself shouldn't cause such fear in the organs of oppression.

The web page of the campaign (in Polish only) is here: www.stop-podwyzkom.pl Read more!

Warsaw May Day

On May 1 an anarchist demonstration took place in Warsaw. A couple of hundred people came from all the different anarchist groups. The demo went to the Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, to the State Labour Inspectorate, a temp agency and a pro-business lobby's headquarters.

Many topics were raised, including the amendment of the Labour Code, discrimination in the workplace, the topic of casual work, firing of unionists and capitalist brainwashing.

A happening about discrimination in the workplace was organized by anarchafeminists from A-Fe. Other groups that took part in the demo included the Anarchist Federation, Left Alternative, Workers' Initiative, Union of Syndicalists, Freedom, Equality and Solidarity and Green Collective.

A pathetic counterdemonstration was organized by fascists. The night before, a talk organized by Freedom, Equality and Solidarity was attacked by fascists who through some incendiary devices into the meeting place. Nobody was hurt.

Some pictures from May Day can be found here:
http://cia.bzzz.net/zdjecia_z_manifestacji_pierwszomajowej
http://cia.bzzz.net/zdjecie_z_1_maja
Read more!

Warsaw Ghetto uprising commemoration

Today marks the 65th anniversary of the start of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It was a great resistance of fewer than 1000 poorly armed people against the Nazi killing machine. They held out for almost one month, despite tremendous odds. Many non-insurgents were killed as a result: in total at least 7000 killed by Nazis, another 6000 being burnt alive or killed by smoke. The end of the uprising saw the liquidation of the ghetto, with most of its residents - about 50,000 people - being sent to death camps.

On this day we remember the dead, those killed by hatred and anti-semitism and we say "Never Again". Members of the Warsaw group of the Union of Syndicalists lit candles and left cards with commemorations and anti-fascist slogans throughout the area of the former ghetto, at the monument and at the Umschlagplatz. We will never forget.

As the plague of fascism and antisemitism lingers around the world, we vow to resist it, in the streets, in our hearts, in our minds, in resistance.

No Pasaran! Read more!

Action against American Military Bases in Poland

Members of ZSP from Warsaw who are involved in an antimilitary campaign had been preparing the first large protest against proposed installation of American missile defense bases in Poland. Comrades from ZSP from Szczecin and Olsztyn also took part, as well as people from many different groups and concerned individuals.

(Photo, members of ZSP giving the bullhorn over to the head lobbyist for the base, on the US payroll. He was promptly beaten by old women and booed away.)

Protest Against Proposed US Missile Base in Poland: Good public support, politicians and police against the people
On Saturday March 29, about 800-1000 people demonstrated against the installation of a US missile base in northern Poland. The base, which the governments of the US and Poland would like to build in Redzikowo, just outside of Slupsk near the Baltic Sea, would house elements of the American Missile Defense program, namely so-called interceptor missiles (which can also be used for offensive purposes. Despite the fact that 60% of local residents and over half of all Poles are strongly against the base, and only a small fraction of the rest support it, the government is intent to go ahead and build the base. A radar base is also to be built in the Czech Republic, again despite the opposition of most citizens.
The Demo
The demonstration started with a Hyde Park / open meeting in front of the town hall. A few hundred local residents came to hear the arguments against the missiles, to demonstrate and to speak out. Many people spoke only the meeting had to be cut slightly short due to an inpending downpour of rain. The only person who spoke in favour of the base was a paid lobbyist, Andrzej Jodkowski who was hired by the American Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance to make pro-missile propaganda in Poland. He was lously jeered by the crowd and some old ladies tried to beat him with sticks. People of all ages came out but it was quite noticeable from both this demonstration and a meeting the day before that survivors of WWII are especially angry about the base and concerned about militarism and a few elderly people in their 70s and 80s spoke out.

During the Hyde Park, free food was served by Food Not Bombs and some theatre was made by the Autonomist Collective and Anarchist Federation group from Torun. A lively demo followed through the city. Slupsk is a city of under 100,000 people which very few activists and the only other such demonstration held there since the fall of communism was a May Day march organized by the Anarchist Federation in 2002. It was quite a sight for local people, many who watched or joined in. Two nice samba bands played, a car went with music, people chanted "No Missile Shield" and lots of other slogans that don't rhyme in English translation.
At the Base
After the main demo ended, a group of a bit over 100 people broke off and marched to Redzikowo, the site of the future American base, a former Polish airforce base during the PRL times, currently disused but still guarded by the military. The police and military started to show their strength, sending out a military helicopter and lots of police vans. (Police had to be sent in from Gdansk for this action. Although Slupsk is home of a police academy and has an extremely large police presence, they were not available as many of them had been sent to Kosovo.)

A small action was made at the side entrance and some people removed the ridiculous barricade made there and went on the territory, at which time the police started to act. However nothing happened since the police claimed to demonstrators that there was "nothing there" and "no base there" and therefore could not give a legitimate reason to the anarchists why they were not allowed on that area. They threatened to arrest people for not following police orders but not for trepassing.

The demonstration moved to the main gate of the base where there was some symbolic attempt to jump the fence. Some local residents came out to talk despite the fact that the large police presence and the cops with dogs could look a little scary. Again local residents, despite the fact that many of them were relatives of former military, complained about the base to the protestors. Mr. Jodkowski the lobbyist, who followed us during the whole march, could only walk around sheepishly trying to give the demonstrators cookies.
Unpleasant Actions and Police Violence
The whole action went without incident, accept perhaps not including problems with vanguardist frauds from the Young Socialists who openly disregard requests not to come with self-advertising, party flags. (They are known throughout Poland as being sleazy party-sponsored parasites who fraudently present themselves as organizers of other people's demonstrations.) However as soon as people left Redzikowo and dispersed, the cops took the opportunity to vent their frustration on some scapegoats.

For whatever reason, a small group of people stayed in Redzikowo. Police used dogs against them and one woman was bitten. They started to give people bullshit fines. One guy was fined for having a black flag on his car. Later, one guy was arrested and fined for cursing. The fine was almost 300 dollars US, really an incredible exaggeration for something like that which in no way should be a punishable offense.

The real problem happened lately on, in the early hours of the morning just before 5 AM. There was a concert/ after party. A group of people were followed from the party by the police. They returned to one guy's place, where a group of people were already sleeping. Shortly later the police raided and attacked them, including people who were sleeping. The pretext was "disturbing the peace" although clearly sleeping people were not disturbing the peace. People were gased and beaten. 23 people were arrested. One guy had his arm badly hurt – in fact hey was sure it was broken. (It turns out not to be broken but just badly hurt.) The police also thought his arm was broken and he was taken to the hospital. He escaped and called people to tell them what happened.

The police at first denied that anything happened or that anybody was arrested but later changed their story (more than once). Few people were left in town, but those who were went down to the police station to demand the release of the arrested. The police are claiming that this brutal attack has nothing to do with the demo but present the arrested as being drunk and disorderly. They are charged with typical bullshit charges of "not respecting the police" and two are being charged with "violating the intouchability of the police", which is more or less assaulting an officer. This charge is used against demonstrators quite often, usually in situations where the police is beating somebody and they try to ward off blows or get the police off them.

As of the time of this report, all but two of the arrested have been released, 8 of them being charged with "not respecting the police". (The two still in custody will probably have the more serious charges against them.) They are going to file a complaint against the police.

Anarchist Solidarity and Anarchist Black Cross will try to help them: for more information or to send a donation for legal help, contact anarchistsolidarity@yahoo.com.
The Struggle will Continue
The event was covered widely by local, national and some international press, although the American media refused to cover the event. Perhaps the action was not big and "spectacular" enough, but surely that's not the only reason. No worry though; if they go ahead with the base, which looks to be a strong possibility, this will just be the beginning. The next demo will be much bigger and louder.

The demonstration was organized by the Campaign against Militarism (started by anarchists but open to others) together with big participation others like the Anarchist Federation, the Autonomous Collective, some local, non-affiliated activists, some members of Greenpeace and the Union of Syndicalists. Practically all of the anarchist and anti-authoritarian groups in Poland were in attendance as well as some anti-war activists and a small handful of leftists from different groups and parties. A good part of the crowd was also made up of Slupsk residents. Probably this was the largest and most successful action we have made in a couple of years and undoubtedly the most important action against this military base that has happened so far in Poland. Despite the fact that most people are against the base, few people publically demonstrate their discontent. Unfortunately. The Campaign has decided to continue its work and, should the work on the base be started, to organize more radical protests and actions.

The campaign can be reached at campaignagainstmilitarism@gmail.com

The website for the action includes lots of info in English about the missile bases: www.m29.bzzz.net

Also see: www.tarcza.org.

There are many press reports in Polish as well as photo reports. Here are a few links to photo and video:

http://cia.bzzz.net/fotki_z_demonstracji_przeciw_tarczy
http://www.poland.indymedia.org/pl/2008/03/35657.shtml
http://www.poland.indymedia.org/pl/2008/03/35679.shtml
http://www.poland.indymedia.org/pl/2008/03/35692.shtml
http://www.poland.indymedia.org/pl/2008/03/35668.shtml
http://www.kfp.com.pl/index2.html?p=szukaj&klucz=antytarcza&zid=120697782247f1051e1433a&strona=2 (Commercial photo agency shit)
http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/Wiadomosci/1,80708,5068992.html (Main newspaper in Poland, video from TV)
http://www.gp24.pl/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080331/MAGAZYN/393713386 (Voice of Pomerania, videos, article. First video (multimedia) has English with speaker from Catholic Worker. Second, talking head in Polish, third has part of march.) Read more!

Priama akcia in Lionbridge, Žilina, Slovakia

As Priama akcia and other Sections of IWA-AIT informed in December 2007 a new grass-roots union was founded in the company Lionbridge, in its Warsaw branch in Poland. On 12th February, Jakub G. - member of the union - was dismissed. The dismissal came shortly after the announcement of union founding. Our Polish comrades from the ZSP call for solidarity actions for Jakub.

On 5th March 2008 during our More Than a Union speech tour we visited Slovak Lionbridge branch in Žilina, which has the same manager as the Polish one.

We entered the building with the Secretary of International Workers Association on Wednesday afternoon and discussed the issue with employees.

We spread leaflets about the situation of our friend Jakub and generally about practices of the company management. Another member of Priama akcia put some leaflets behind the windscreen-wipers of the nearby parked cars.

Meanwhile, Secretary of IWA had a meeting with a person from the management and told that IWA knows about the case and will follow it.

Employees of Lionbridge didn't know about Jakub and his dismissal but the team leader did. He expressed his opinion: according to him, Jakub shouldn´t have found a union, if he was not satisfied with the working conditions in Lionbridge – he rather should have found him a new job.

Person from the management was really shocked because of the visit of the Secretary of IWA from Serbia:) and said that he would inform his boss about it.

The aim of this action was to inform workers about the situation in Poland and to put pressure on the management – to tell them that we know about their practices against our comrade. We were also glad to express our solidarity with Jakub by this form of action.

Apart from the action we have started a money collection for Jakub, which is still in process.

Priama akcia - IWA Slovakia
www.priamaakcia.sk Read more!

Lionbridge unlawfully dismisses trade-union organizer

Lionbridge is the largest corporation in the globalizationLogo_lionbridge industry, which, among other things, translates and localizes software for giants such as Microsoft, Google and Adobe, provides Microsoft hotline services and even, controversially, provides interpreters to the Irish courts.

It has offices on several continents, notably in Europe, USA, India and China. The company’s headquarters are located in Waltham, Massachusetts, USA. Lionbridge currently employs 4600 people in 26 countries and subcontracts work to over 25,000 independent translators. Lionbridge provides translation and localization of Web sites, mobile devices, software, and clinical trials.

In December 2007, workers in the Warsaw office of that firm created a trade union, called “Krajowa Federacja Pracownikow". On Feb. 12, 2008, Jakub G., a workplace union representative in Lionbridge Poland was dismissed on disciplinary grounds. The dismissal came shortly after the announcement to management that a union had been formed in the workplace and despite the fact that Jakub was protected by Polish Labor Law as an elected union representative.

Jakub was warned by members of the management that having a union would make the company "less competitive". The reason given for Jakub's dismissal was “damaging the company's image” and “disclosing confidential information” by writing an article which was published on the Internet. No proof of those allegations were given, and in fact, another person has admitted to writing the article.

The article in question, published in Polish and then in a slightly different English version, is in fact based entirely on information available on the internet. Lionbridge is on Lou Dobbs' "Exporting America" list of companies "sending American jobs overseas, or choosing to employ cheap overseas labor, instead of American workers", as Dobbs puts it, although now that the dollar's value has dropped so drastically the firm plans more and more job cuts in Europe. Lionbridge publicly announced its plans a few years ago to shift some 40% of jobs from the US and UK to India and China. Information of this kind is public domain.

Incidents of firing union members in disregard of the law are fairly common in Poland, including firing protected union officials. Most often summary dismissals are given shortly after the creation of a union. There have also been a number of cases where unionists have been dismissed for "acting to the detriment of the company" by describing some aspect of work conditions to the press. ITUC has recorded many dozens of instances of unionists being dismissed shortly after announcing the formation of a new union. "Acting to the detriment of the company" and "disclosing secrets" are typical charges. It seems that the "birthplace of Solidarity" is now famous in European labour circles for firing unionists.

Jakub has filed a case against Lionbridge in the Polish Labor Court. The first hearing will take place on July 4th in Warsaw. The Lionbridge case will be closely looked at not only by unionists, but also by human rights organizations and even legal observers. What will be interesting for legal observers is to see how the corporate lawyers will try to argue that public information, available on the internet, may be considered at the same time "confidential".

Jakub has been working for the company for almost 8 years and received several promotions before becoming active as a trade-union organizer.

More information about the case is available at: http://lionbridge.zsp.net.pl

If you wish to express your support for Jakub, please write a protest letter to Lionbridge CEO Rory Cowan, at Lionbridge headquarters:
1050 Winter Street
Suite 2300
Waltham, MA 02451
Email: rory.cowan@lionbridge.com
Tel: +1 781 434 6000
Fax: +1 781 434 6034 Read more!

Protest at the Colombian Embassy

The Union of Syndicalists (ZSP) Warsaw group visited the Colombian embassy in Warsaw on March 6 for the protest against state-sponsored violence in that country. Protests, called for by the National Movement of Victims and backed by human rights groups, trade unions and families of victims, were held in over 180 cities around the world.

ZSP wanted especially to draw attention to the violence against trade unionists and the involvement of the state, corporations, paramilitaries and even the US government in the killing, tortures, beatings and harrassment of unionists. The ZSP activists brought pictures of murdered unionists to decorate the embassy with and spoke about the general situation as well as specific cases in firms such as Chiquita, Coca Cola, Drummond and Nestle.

Unfortunately the whole action was slightly undermined by the actions of the Colombian Embassy and the mysterious non-appearance of the liberals who called the protest. People connected to the Embassy, upon learning that something was planned for March 6, organized its own vigil for March 5 and actively invited people to attend the protest, as part of the March 6 Marches, on March 5, apparently confusing some people as to when the protest was being held. It then staged a pro-government, anti-FARC farce on the embassy grounds. Nonetheless, some people were not confused by the trick and joined the protest on the 6th. Read more!

Solidarity Action at Auchan in Warsaw

Members of the Union of Syndicalists along with comrades from the Anarchist Federation and some others held an action / solidarity picket in and in front of an Auchan supermarket in Warsaw on Jan. 25. The action was held because of Auchan's poor labour practices which include:

- low pay
- wide use of contract labour in their supermarkets and incidents of using work agencies which did not signvalid contracts with employees, among other abuses
- bad social policy
- bad working hours including the illegal use of underaged workers forcing them towork overnight shifts
- forcing people to perform physically dangerous work, for example dragging pallets which are too heavy, and work which causes repetitive strain injury
- repression of people agitating for the creation of unions, including the recent firing in Zielona Gora of one activist from the group Workers' Initiative

One of the main parts of the action was distributing and putting up stickers which detourned the supermarket's sales circular. For example, statements like "we slash prices" were changed to "we slash wages", etc. The fake circular told the story of the work conditions in the market, the firing in Zielona Gora and encouraged workers to organize themselves. Additionally, fake corporate stickers were added to many products, especially on sales display saying that Auchan fires unionists and guarantees the exploitation of their workers.

Besides this, some leaflets were given to supermarket employees and to customers.

Earlier in the day, stickers were but on the doors of Auchan corporate headquarters.

The next day another action was held in another Auchan market with members of Left Alternative, Anarchist Federation from another city, some Trotskyists, Bolsheviks and unionists. Some banners were unfurled at this action which was somewhat similar to the one the day before. Similar actions were held in Gdansk and Poznan. Read more!

Three Labour Conflicts Highlight the State's Animosity Towards Workers

Currently there are many labour conflicts in Poland, including various forms of strikes and protest. Almost 20 years after Poland's transition to a market economy, labour unrest is still strongest in the budget sector and in state-owned companies.

THE STRIKE IN BUDRYK: Miners get the shaft as elite get wealthy
The mining industry in Poland is still a quite healthy business. Fuel prices are rising as is the global demand for coal. Budryk is one of the mines in Poland that was making a very healthy profit – until a labour dispute began costing the mine losses of about 1 million US dollars per day.

Budryk, at least on paper, wasn't always so profitable. Its former directors were implicated as being part of the infamous “coal mafia”. The coal mafia for years were diverting profits away from the state-owned mines by siphoning off proceeds to other companies which they controlled. Members of former governments from Solidarity, from the “leftist” SLD, as well as trade union leaders and mine directors have either been implicated or rumoured to be involved in not only the coal mafia but in shady privatizations. An investigation was made and mysteriously “lost”. More recently, a member of the SLD accused of taking bribes from the coal mafia died during a raid on her home. The special forces claimed she killed herself while the opposition claimed she was murdered. Such incidents show that the coal mafia is quite powerful and that there are powerful people involved in the cover-up.

The coal mafia was one of the reasons why some mines showed losses on paper even though the mines had good output and were selling their production at good prices. As members of the government and their business cronies were busy depleting the industry (and the State Treasury) of its wealth, other members of the government, spurred on by proponents of reform and privatization, were busy arguing that the mining sector was a drain on the state budget and that the people working in it were practically the equivalent of welfare seekers: people who were being supported by the good will of the state, a bunch of malcontent charity cases.

Budryk was built in the times when other mines were being liquidated. How could it be that politicians were arguing that mines are not necessary, were arguing that the industry needs to restructure and lay off thousands of workers but then decide that it needs to open a new mine? In one of capitalism's typical manipulations, they carried out restructuring, shutting down mines not because there was no demand for their product, but because they wanted to reorganize the workforce, to employ new people on less favourable conditions, to bust unions and to but pressure on workers.

Almost two and a half thousand people were employed to work in Budryk. Another two thousand or more work there, but aren't employed there. They're contract workers employed by other firms, often private companies which have shady deals with the mines.

Budryk is a profitable mine and the output there is very high. The average output per worker is twice the industry average. The wages at Budryk were the lowest in the industry. This is because Budryk is the youngest mine in Poland, formed during mining restructuring and was intentionally formed as a profit-making machine where production is high and wages are low.

Budryk was merged with a mining holding company - JSW. JSW is one of the companies slated for privatization and a profitable Budryk increased the value of the group. On the other hand, some claim that Budryk, with losses generated by labour conflicts, will help devalue JSW allowing some interests to buy it up at a fraction of its real worth.

On Dec. 17, after a larger one-day strike throughout the mining industry, several unions at Budryk decided to continue striking over pay issues. Budryk was to be merged with JSW at the beginning of the year and it turned out that worker in other JSW-controlled mines made up to 200 euros a month more than the miners at Budryk. The workers demanded that their wages immediately be raised to the same level.

The strike as been on ever since. Much of the mainstream media are against the strikers, as is typical of their class bias. The management, media and members of the government launched attacks against them, even calling them terrorists. They try to get workers against each other by claiming that the strikers are troublemakers, even ”anarchists” and by praising the people who just keep working and are “perfectly happy” with their wages. Solidarity did not support the strike and have played a role in criticizing the unions which are striking. Most scandalously, a long-time member of Solidarity and leading activist in ATTAC Poland called for the police to intervene and crush the strike.

The government has taken a hard, Thatcheresque line on this since the new government is made up of heartless proponents of stark pro-business policies. The Minister of the Economy Pawlak, head of the so-called Polish “People's” Party, is stearing JSW's negotiation strategy but claiming that the Ministry has “nothing to do with the issue”. The Ministry in fact oversees the state's interests in the mining sector and appoints the supervisory board of JSW. The Minister made no attempt to hide his contempt of the strikers, whom he refuses to speak with.

Currently, many of the strikers are occupying the mine 700 meters below ground. 27 people are on hunger strike. JSW has claimed that it can no longer afford to give the miners a raise... because it is lost so much money on the strike. The management of JSW has many times threatened to hold the leaders of the strike financially responsible for the losses of the company and have claimed that the strike is illegal.

THE TEACHERS PROTEST MAY TURN INTO A STRIKE

The past two years has also been marked by teachers' protests over pay. On Jan. 18, over 12,000 teachers marched on Warsaw to demand pay increases.

Teachers in Poland can earn different salaries depending on a number of factors, but typical salaries range from 300-400 euros a month for experienced teachers. (Some teachers take home only about 220 euros a month.) Teachers' work in greatly undervalued, even in comparison to other employees in the state sector.

The Ministry of Education has been promising wage increases for a long time. Last year the government promised a seven-procent pay raise which was eventually revised down to 2%. The situation got complicated last year over political issues with the union ZNP calling for the removal of far-right Education Minister Giertych, who in turn took various measures to persecute members of ZNP for having left-wing leanings, including having them removed from many positions on responsibility within the school system. The mess with Giertych and the subsequent change of government meant that the raise issue was pushed aside and teachers had to return to work this fall with no meaningful raises.

The current government is offering a 55 euro a month wage increase, but the teachers want 3 times that much for junior teachers, and six times that much for senior teachers. They point out that the cost of living has increased so much in Poland that most people cannot get by on such salaries without taking a second job.

As the quality of public education plummets in Poland, the new government has already proposed a “solution” to the problem: tax vouchers for parents who want to send their kids to private schools.

ZNP has threatened to go on strike during exam period if they cannot reach a settlement with the government.

DOCTORS MAY REACH AN AGREEMENT, NURSES MAY STRIKE

The doctors and nurses labour disputes are extremely complicated as they are often in the foreground of the movement towards privatization of health care services. The new government is a strong proponent of commercialization of health care and privatization, about to introduce new reforms which will eliminate many services and force more people to take out private health insurance policies.

I outline the problem of the workers' struggles in the context of privatization in another article.

For many doctors, the “solution” to their wage disputes have been to quit their jobs and to enter into private contracts with hospitals, sometimes as business entities. Often, their services must come at a premium to patients or are only available for paying patients of through private clinics. In some strange deal, the details of which are hidden to the public, the government claimed that the heads of the doctors' union have somehow agreed on a strike-free period during which apparently structural changes will be made to hospitals, including wage increases. Despite a triumphant press conference to that effect, some hospitals are still on strike. Recently, a few hospitals had to be “evacuated” that is all the patients had to be moved elsewhere to get care. In many hospitals, even the emergency rooms are closed now. There is no other word to describe the situation than chaos.

Among the issues at dispute is legislation about working hours. Poland transposed an EU directive on working hours which would mean that doctors are entitled to 11 hours rest period per day. When the new government came into power, they immediately claimed that doctors are entitled to no such thing and that the legislation is just “poorly worded”. The Ministry of Health and even the State Labour Inspectorate issued an interpretation of the law claiming that doctors are entitled to 11 hours rest after their duty, which may in fact last 24 hours. There have been two EU court rulings on exactly this matter which uphold the doctors' right to 11 hours rest per day, but this apparently does not concern the government which is looking to convince doctors that they should work all day and night.

Of course the law allows doctors to “opt out” of this right and voluntarily agree to work longer hours. The government has been actively encouraging doctors to waive their rights by issuing legal opinions stating that they don't really have that right anyway.

As part of the state-organized guilt trip against doctors, who are often made out as greedy murderers who let patients die, the government has been trying to get them to agree to longer working hours in exchange for salary increases. Many such schemes have offered doctors more take-home pay, but no increase in salary per hour. As the state pressure doctors to work 60, 80 or even more hours a week, the care available to patients has not been worth the obligatory insurance payments for a long time and all who can afford it have long ago taken out private insurance or turned to private health care providers. With this the case, the government then claims that people do it because they know that private health care is intrinsically better.

Amidst the growing chaos in the health care system, it turns out again that nurses have been treated like workers of lesser value. Tomorrow, Jan. 21, they'll walk out in protest for at least a few hours and are threatening to go on strike if they do not get a pay raise. They have threatened to go on strike.

Last year nurses set up a tent city in Warsaw for a month. They called off the action without having reached any agreement on their demands. The government claimed (and still claims) that there is “not enough money in the budget” for the nurses.
THE STATE CAPITALIST/ BUREAUCRATIC APPARATUS AGAINST THE WORKING CLASS
Despite “not having enough money” in the budget for the nurses, teachers, or any other useful workers, the parliamentarians gave themselves raises this year, as they did for most of their political buddies who got cushy posts in different ministries and state institutions.

The Minister of Education, Katarzyna Hall, takes a taxi from Warsaw to her home in Sopot and back every weekend and charges the state for it instead of taking the train. (It's a 4-5 hour drive – without traffic.)

The National Health Fund builds luxury offices for its bureaucrats, although the state wants to liquidate the fund.

The government decides that among the greatest investment opportunities for the country is building football stadiums for the EURO 2012 and that what Poland really needs is more F-16s and missiles so that they can build up the presence of the Polish army.

Way down on the list of state priorities, less important than lining their own pockets and bringing business opportunities for their buddies and campaign contributors, comes the fate of not only the teachers, doctors and nurses, but in fact of all public services, which is being increasingly treated as an annoying relict of communist ideology. Perhaps the only positive thing in this all is that the new government in Poland is too heartless to even pretend to give a damn, which surely will mobilize even more workers against them. That is, unless some of them get brainwashed by the media and certain unions that all of this privatization will eventually lead to their prosperity down that line and that the best thing to do is tighten ones belt instead of raising ones fist. Read more!

New Non-hierarchical Union Formed

On 21 December KFP union was registered. It became a representative union in one international corporation's Poland office.

The union is formed on the basis of direct democracy. There are no leaders of the union. Delegates have a strict mandate and decisions are made as democratically as possible.

Members of ZSP were active in forming the union and hopefully the union will grow to other workplaces. Read more!

Killer Cola Action

We organized a little action in the framework of the Killer Cola campaign.

During the action the half-paramilitary/half-Santa Claus actor loaded his weapons when he saw Coca-Cola's trade unionists giving out information about Coke's crimes. One by one he assassinated the workers, with impunity. 3 activists staged a die-in while playing the roles of the slain Coca-Cola employees and former SINALTRAINAL trade union leaders.

The narrator explained the desperate circumstances for Coca-Cola's trade unionist employees in Colombia and appealed to the public to show solidarity with the families of the deceased and other workers by demanding Coca-Cola use their influence and profits to safeguard their employees security.


Damian's account:
http://peacenikhurler.blogspot.com/2007/12/killer-cokes-santa-claus-reveals-he-is.html

Another Killer Coke Christmas street action is planned for 12 noon next Saturday, December 22nd, at Galeria Centrum (opposite H&M) Read more!

Second Congress of the Union of Syndicalists

On Dec. 8-9 the second congress of ZSP was held in Wroclaw. The first Congress, held in March 2007, was the founding Congress in Gliwice at which the general ideas of association were discussed.

People from 8 cities were in attendance.
The following topics were discussed and decided at the Congress:

1. Some changes were made to the draft statute.

2.Ongoing campaigns.
a. To broaden the campaign against work agencies.
b. To invite people working in or interested in the automobile
industry in Eastern Europe to carry out a joint project.
c. Work on the Coca Cola boycott. ZSP is making a network
of bars and spaces that refuse to sell or serve Coke and working on a
pressure campaign on NGOs sponsored by Coke.

Other recent ideas for actions, for example in support of repressed unionists in Indian and activists in the Clean Clothes campaign, did not get on the agenda of the Congress.

3.Union – KFP
A report was made on the status of the union federation KFP.
(Some members of ZSP will be members of this union, while there are also a couple of members of IP in ZSP.) Writing the statutes of the union took quite a while, but they are quite radical for Polish reality. There is still no decision from the registration court.

4.ZSP Newspaper and Web Pages
Decision to publish the paper Zaplata every 6 months and to improve look of web
pages zsp.bzzz.net and www.pracownik.net.pl. A local Warsaw page will
also be made.

It was decided to publish more theoretical works.

4.Mail / contact.
info@zsp.net.pl Main e-mail contact. Can answer mails/ receive texts
in different languages, esp. English, German, French, Russian,
Spanish.

Other local addresses:
warszawa@zsp.net.pl
mazowsze@zsp.net.pl
dolnyslask@zsp.net.pl
gornyslask@zsp.net.pl
gorzowwielkopolski@zsp.net.pl
szczecin@zsp.net.pl
olsztyn@zsp.net.pl

5. Discussion about proposal for cooperation on defending repressed workers.

6.The Congress set the issue of dues and selected a Treasurer, The Treasurer is elected for a term of 2 years.

7.The next Congress will be held in Szczecin. Congresses will be held once a year. Some informal meetings are loosely planned for the time between the Congresses. Read more!