English

If eight hours don't seem enough for you (original title of the article), try to work at an assembly line from ten o'clock at night till six o'clock in the morning with three breaks of ten minutes. With the lunch break taking place during the last half an hour of your shift, unless productive recoveries are needed.

Pawel Jedlinski had an accident at work and reported problems with safety procedures to the State Labour Inspectorate. The was subsequently harrassed at work, denied a promotion and later his contract was not renewed.

The management did not want Pawel to report his accident. They are, by law, required to do so but, like many companies, refuse to do so and try to cover up that accidents happened.

A protest to Cadbury can be sent through this page:

http://www.solidarnosc-cadbury.pl/solidarni.html

A series of strikes has been taking place this week at Fiat plants throughout Italy.

Today there were strikes related to Fiat's decision to cut bonuses this year.

Tomorrow, Fiom and some other unions are calling for a four-hour strike throughout Italy. The strike is in protest of the sacking of four unionists in retaliation for not signing the Pomigliano deal.

Workers in Tychy, Poland were angry to learn that a unionist at the Mirafiori factory in Turin, Pino Capozzi, was fired for sending out the letter they had written using email at work. They send the following letter of solidarity:

Solidarity from Poland

Colleagues at Fiat Italy!

We admire and support your struggle against serious attacks on your working conditions and your basic human rights and freedoms.

In September 2009, eight workers who had joined the newly established branch of the Independent and Self-Governing Trade Union Solidarity at Officina Labour were dismissed just four days after the existence of the union was announced. (Officina Labor was a warehouse for Torfarm pharmacueticals which today is called Neuca; Officina Labour has been renamed Neuca Logistyka.)

Based in Rzgów (Łódź) the company employed almost 400 people. Workers had no extra pay for weekend work, their bonuses were cut and in August 2009 there was an industrial accident which injured 4 people. Furthermore, all had been feeling increasing insecurity about their jobs.

Workers in Carrefour supermarkets around Poland are complaining about the introduction of a new element in the "organization of work": a large red circle found on the floors of markets where workers are supposed to stand to "discuss issues" with the management. Workers in one Lublin market were the first to expose that, among the reasons workers should stand on the circle is to get permission to go to the toilet.

Workers have pointed out the absurdity of the situation where they have to stand 5-10 minutes waiting for a manager to show up at the red circle and give them permission to use the toilet when it is faster just to take a break. People are complaining that the procedure is totally humiliating.

Fiat, which has started downsizing and cutting hours at its Tychy plant, has asked the Polish government for almost 40 mln. zloties in state aid to start production of the Lancia Ypsilon at the factory. Some government officials have commented that Fiat already gets significant tax breaks.

The Fiat factory in Tychy will not prolong contracts for 60 workers. They want to get rid of at least 350 workers employed on fixed-term contracts by the end of the year. Fiat currently employs about 1000 such people out of a workforce of 6500.

There were also be some stops in production. From September-December, the production lines will be shut down at least 13 days. There will also be a 14-day stoppage in August.

Both the management of the factory and the government promised that there would be no job loss at Fiat if production of the Panda was moved to Italy.

Starting July 1, the Rydygier hospital in Krakow is to become the first fully commericalized hospital in the Malopolska Vojevodship. Even though this is to happen in only a few days, workers at the hospital have no idea what their working conditions will be in this new commerical entity - or whether they will be hired at all. In addition to these problems, there are shadows of corruption related to a tender won by the former vice-director and in general, there is a scandalous mess related to lack of information.

The management of FIAT in Tychy are trying to get the unions to agree to even worse working conditions. The company is trying to make use of the "Anti-Crisis Act" to change, among other things, work schedules.

On June 18, the State Duma adopted ammendments to the Law on Trade Unions. The ammendments free employers from several obligations and limitations. Previously, permission from the trade union had to be received in order to fire one of its members or impose disciplinary sanctions. Also, members of unions had certain protection against transfer to other workplaces.

Ammendments to article 25 of the law have now made it easier to fire and transfer union members.

Authorities in Lower Silesia have uncovered a work camp where 33 Ukrainians (28 women / 5 men) were workng in scandalous conditions. They were supposed to earn 2 zl. (less than 50 euro cents) per basket of strawberries picked. Below we can see an example of wages paid for the period of May 4 - May 31 of this year: 122 zloties net - or about 30 euros for almost one month of work!

Besides this the people lived in cramped conditions with improper sanitation and no working refrigerator. The public prosecutor's office has been informed and the employer faces fines for, among other things violating the labour law, illegally employing people, creating health and sanity risks. He may also face criminal charges.

18 June was a picket in the center of Warsaw at HM. The picket was related to two cases of violating workers' rights. The first was in relation to the horrible tragedy at the Garib garment factory in Bangladesh, On February 25, 22 workers were killed in a fire. The workers were locked in the factory and could not escape; on top of that, there were numerous safety violations. The National Garment Workers Federation is calling for compensation for the families of the victims and better safety standards at the factory.

More information:
http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent-actions/garib-fire-survivors-call-for...

Call for Support (Sending Faxes and E-mails)
(sent by ZSP-IWA Warsaw)

21 Construction Workers Stranded in Warsaw

The workers came from the Xantung province to work in Poland. They paid huge money to an agency for these jobs and one-way tickets to Poland. They were hired by a company called Turret Development. Turret
Development is owned by American businessman Michael Alter, president of the Alter Group, one of the ten largest commercial real estate developers in the United States. Alter has been investing in real estate in Poland and using cheap Asian labour for this work.

The people worked last year on the Wola Tower construction site in Warsaw, After that, they were sent by Turret to work in Lodz and in Olawa, doing finishing work in new flats during the winter.

A group of 21 Chinese construction workers have ended up camped outside the Chinese Embassy in Warsaw. They have no money to return home and are waiting for help.

The workers were hired by a company called Turret Development. Turret Development is owned by American businessman Michael Alter, president of the Alter Group, one of the ten largest commercial real estate developers in the United States. Alter has been investing in real estate in Poland and using cheap Asian labour for this work.

Currently we are investigating the situation with these workers. One thing is clear: they were hired by Turret Development to work on the Wola Tower construction site. After that, they were sent by Turret to work in Lodz and in Olawa.

Croatian „Maggie“ and Labor Law reform

Croatian Premier Jadranka Kosor and her Cabinet proposed a new amendment to the Labor Law which would do away with the miniumum wage. The amendment states that one of the important factors in the crisis of capitalism in Croatia, contributing to a great number of closed workplaces is the “fact” that employers are obliged to pay a minimum wage their workers! (Just for your information, the minimum salary in Croatia is around 2.814 Croatian kunas BRUTTO, which is something like 390€ a month.)