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.

Two workers were killed by a toxic substance Feb.22 at the Coca Cola plant in Radzymin, near Warsaw. The workers were from a firm which was called in to repair a vat at the factory. Three workers became ill from the toxic substance which may have been at the bottom of the vat. All three workers lost consciousness.

The fire brigade was called and the men were taken to the hospital. 27 year old Rafał T. was pronounced dead on arrival. 28 year old Krzystof B. died a couple of days later. The third victim was hospitalized and survived.

The Tesco supermarket in the Polish city of Tychy had to shut down for two hours February 20 as disgruntled workers held a two-hour warning strike.

The workers are demanding a pay increase. Wages at Tesco run from about 220 to 300 euros are month. They are demanding a wage increase of close to 200 euros a month.

A Tesco executive from England was flown in to Tychy for the event. The firm hired scabs from a temp agency to replace the cashiers who would be striking but this did not help. The striking employees blocked the entrance of the supermarket.

On Wednesday, February 20, workers at TESCO in Tychy will hold a two-hour strike. The management of TESCO consider such a strike illegal.

Workers at TESCO make the mininum wage. Despite working weekends, TESCO employees take home from 800-1100 zloties a month - that is between about 220 and 300 euros a month. The workers at the Tychy market are demanding a 700 zloty a month pay increase.

TESCO employs 28,000 people in Poland. There are over 300 TESCO supermarkets plus gas station markets and other markets called Savia. TESCO enjoys extremely healthy profits in Poland.

Some members of Workers' Initiative union have called for work stoppage and the beginning of a hunger strike at the Post Office. Post Office workers are demanding that the Post Office fulfill their obligations under the agreement made after the Post Office Strike in 2006.

Two unions, Kadra and Unity, whose leaders are to be fired for their part in the 46-day strike in the Budryk mine, are prepared to go back on strike. The August 80 union is not in favour of such measures.

A member of ZSP Warsaw was summarily dismissed from work despite being a protected union representative. The firing happened shortly after the creation of the union was announced to the management. The fired rep claims that there were no real grounds for his dismissal and he will take his case to court. More information on the case to follow shortly.

The management of JSW holding company, which controls the Budryk mine, has started proceedings to fire 5 unionists for their part in the 46-day strike in the mine. On Monday letters were sent from the management concerning their intent to fire two other strikers.

Among the people to be fired are Krzysztof Labadz, head of the August 80 union in Budryk and Grzegorz Bednarski, head of the union Kadra.

JSW is accusing various strikers of breaking the law during the strike and wants to fire them on disciplinary grounds. The company has filed charges at the public prosecutor's office.

An agreement was reached ending the strike in the Budryk mine. It had lasted 46 days.

Workers will receive a pay raise of 490 zloties (135 euro) a month gross plus a one-time payment of 2200 zloties (600 euro) to compensate for low wages last year. This is less than the strikers were demanding.

The main demand of the strike was to end wage discrimination by raising the level of wages in Budryk to that of other mines controlled by the JSW holding company. Budryk (which is owned by the State Treasury) was merged into the JSW holding group (also owned by the State Treasury) at the beginning of the year. The average level of wages in Budryk is the lowest among mines in the JSW group despite the fact that Budryk is one of the most profitable mines in Poland and workers achieve twice the national average output.

A commission will be formed in order to examine how to raise wages in Budryk to the level of other JSW mines which the management of JSW promises to do by 2010.

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.