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On May 16, during the „Museum Night” annual event, ZSP union picketed at the Copernicus Science Center in Warsaw. The action brought together two campaigns – against the use of outsourcing, trash contracts and the subminimum wage at public institutions and an organizing campaign in the Ekotrade agency. Ekotrade is known for its use of trash contracts and low wages and is used by the Science Center.

Hundreds and hundreds of people were at the event. We spoke to people about the situation and handed out leaflets. The Center got very nervous and called the police, who were intent on stopping the action. Security and some event organizers tried to intervene claiming that we were not allowed to hand out leaflets on the sidewalk, which we ignored and made people more interested in what was happening. Despite the harrassment, a few hundred leaflets were given out.

The ZSP has been campaigning for the past year against the use of trash contracts and the subminimum wage in public institutions. We fought successfully with the Impuls agency and many of their contracts were terminated. Our postulate is that public institutions either hire people directly or, if they do use outside companies, that the entity making a public tender should make workers' rights a requirement. Only firms which give proper contracts and pay at least the minimum wage should be used. These postulates have been gaining support.

Despite the fact that the ZSP's postulates would be a good solution and even has some political support, some members of government pretend that such provisions cannot be put in a public tender. This is not true and a few days ago we saw the first example of how this could be applied in practice. ZTM, which runs public bus transport in Warsaw, holds tenders for various bus routes. It has now announced that workers' rights must be respected and it will put several conditions in the tender. One of them requires the bus companies to give the drivers work contracts.

The local ZSP welcomes the initiative of the ZTM, which should be an example for other institutions. When justifying their decisions to make these requirements, they recalled the wildcat strike of 32 Ukrainian bus drivers in 2008. It was ZSP which had contacted them about their working conditions, documented the problems, publicized the case and helped the drivers get their payment.

It has taken years for any action to be taken against the companies which the city uses and which exploit their workers. We are hoping that by focusing more public attention of the concrete cases of abuse that something will begin to shift. We also invite the agency workers to join us and organize!

Leaflet in English below.