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August 16 there was another action at the Full Job work agency. Some workers employed through the agency, some who are members of ZSP, appeared at the agency in order to get paid for June and July. The people occupied the office.
The people from Full Job gave all sorts of excuses why the workers haven't been paid, adding new „reasons” to the old ones. The people said they would not leave Full Job until they had contact with the owner of the firm. The police were called twice on the protestors. The second time the police helped them to get the protestors out and shut down the office. ZSP plans to return with more actions.
Workers at Full Job agency are protesting late payments in the company. A group of ZSP working through the agency demanded on-time payments and direct employment with the company they work for.
The first news is that a couple of people were hired directly. While this may be an improvement in terms of payments, it cannot be said that the company itself offers regular working conditions.
The problem remains that the company has not paid people on time. People at the agency office just repeated like robots what the management told them to say and claimed it is not their responsibility to pay people, with not the least bit of sympathy for people that cannot pay their bills because of their non-payments. Of course this is not acceptable and we warn other workers about this situation and will be back at the agency with another action.
Impel Airport Services transfer assets and sell company. Workers left with nothing.
People who serviced the airplanes for LOT and other companies at Warsaw's Chopin airport for years are fighting against what has happened to them and to get compensation for being abandoned by their company. The story is unfortunately something that happens in Poland, where corporate profits are put above the welfare of workers.
Five years ago, the workers were employed by LOT Ground Services. The work is not just simple cleaning; they had lots of training in special procedures, they enjoyed stable work with benefits. Until one day they were sold away.
A lawyer representing Impuls has written to the Anarchist Information Center portal, threatening to sue it for an article on Impuls, which described the problems of the workers with getting paid, sometimes for many months.
Activists from ZSP are in contact with workers who haven't been paid by Impuls for months. Some of them already filed suit in court. But it is just the tip of the iceberg.
The lawyer for Impuls threatens to sue for 60,000 zloties (15,000 euros) but also write that in the case of losing contracts, Impuls will sue the owner of the internet domain for an additional 100,000 zloties (25,000 euros) for losses. The lawyer also claims that jobs can be lost because of informing about the late payments of Impuls. In other words, they are insinuating that, the bigger problem for workers is not that their boss pays them 3 or 4 months late and that they have no money and debts during that time, but that if anybody finds out about it, the bosses can have trouble.
Even more „interesting” than that are the lawyer's description of pickets at the Impuls office. During the first picket, workers locked the doors of the company in fear and during the third picket, a boss from the company hit a comrade in the face while he was talking through the megaphone, leaving him a little bloodied up. The lawyer however writes that at the demonstrations at Impuls somebody "committed a crime described in article 189 § 1 of the Criminal Code, illegal imprisonment of my Client”.
On August 9, a conference was held in the Warsaw Uprising Museum on the role of syndicalists in the in the armed struggle against the Nazis during the Uprising and other related history. The main topic of the conference revolved around the ZSP, in particular the 104th Company of Syndicalists, which played an important role in the Uprising, but there were also explorations of the genesis of the ZSP, of the currents of Polish syndicalism at the time and of the ZSP and Polish syndicalism in comparison with other revolutionary syndicalist and anarchosyndicalist organizations.
Starting the conference was Szymon Niedziela, historian from the Warsaw Uprising Museum. He gave a very interesting and detailed account of the actions of the ZSP during the Uprising. These included not only armed action against the Nazis, but also significant actions such as operating kitchens to feed the civilian population and extensive publishing, including important news from the Uprising. He also told very interesting (and sad) stories about the relation of the Home Army towards the ZSP, including not informing them about plans to start the Uprising and about deciding that they should remain the last ones on the barricades defending the Old Town while others were evacuated, preventing the evacuation of the syndicalists.
Jakub Woroncow spoke about leading figures in the ZSP like Kazimierz Zakrzewski, Stefan Szwedowski and Jerzy Szurig. He also examined the history of the ZSP and spoke about some of its activities and positions. He examined the ZZZ and its development. ZSP was formed by people who had been active in that syndicalist federation. Rafal Chwedoruk also spoke about the ZZZ and ZSP, examining their ideas, influences and development. He gave a presentation on what syndicalism is and the main influences on Polish syndicalism of that time. Besides looking at ZZZ and ZSP, he also spoke about Syndicalist Organization „Freedom” (SOW), which existed during the Uprising and made a comparison between the influences on ZZZ and ZSP (ie. French Revolutionary Syndicalism) and on SOW (anarchosyndicalism, FAUD, IWA...).
Members of ZSP in Full Job and Direct Post will take action about the situation of mail delivers working for Direct Post through the Full Job agency. The workers are not paid on time and get small, irregular salaries. Direct Post uses workers who are paid by the amount delivered through this agency, Full Job has different reasons for paying late, usually telling different workers different things. One pretext they give is claiming that Direct Post has not paid them yet.
ZSP is organizing and have listed some demands. The first is that Direct Post should directly hire the workers. But as long as it uses Full Job, it should pay on time. And Full Job, which naturally sends workers to other companies as well, must pay workers on time. The problem of late payments should not be made the workers' problem.
A protest is planned at Full Job agency.
On August 2, another action was held at Impuls, which against did not pay any of its employees, who are waiting to know when they'll get their salary. This time one of the bosses came, who hit our comrade who was speaking on the megaphone in the face and then called the police and claimed that the comrade hit him. The shameless guy was shouting that we are „lying” about his company. Several people passing by below had friends or relatives who had worked there and were there cursing this guy. One woman, whose son is a former employee, came to confront the boss. Her son got paid after 4 months and, as she says, only because they kept coming and making a fuss, threatening to sue them. The boss kept insisting that everybody is a „liar” because the son got paid (4 months late).
These actions are pissing them off. But ZSP and the few workers taking action need to escalate since obviously these people have no morals and there is no shortage of desperate people to hire who will work some time before quitting, without organizing themselves. And without organization and direct action, workers are really fucked in the country, full of thieving bosses and inadequate protection for employees.
Impel is one of the richest firms in Poland, supplying cleaning services, security guards and other services to companies, public instituions, etc. For years we have been publishing news about the company - about how jobs in hospitals are outsourced to Impel and workers find themselves on much worse conditions, about low pay, precarious working conditions and other problems. Many Impel employees have commented on this throughout the years. Below we present another story sent to ZSP about the firm.
The story shows how companies can set up numerous legal entities, in order to avoid responsibilities towards workers. It also unfortunately shows what can happen to people whose once stable jobs are taken over by firms such as Impel.
Three years ago, a group of cleaners lost their jobs at Chopin Airport in Warsaw and filed suit in court to establish who their employer was.
On July 30, we held a second action at Impuls, which hasn't been paying workers. Those who showed up today went away with nothing. Even some workers haven't been paid in months but could not be told when they would get there money. The firm cancelled the normal pay day and it is not clear when anybody will get money.
Some lawsuits have been filed against Impuls for back pay - but this can take forever. The company might also, like many others, just declare bankruptcy one day and leave the workers with nothing. We say that rather than wait, other workers need to organize immediately and join those who decided to take action.
We will be back at the company this week.
Impuls is hasn't been paying their workers on time or regularly for a long time. Twice a week they can go to the office and wait on line - if the money runs out, workers are sent home with nothing. Some workers are owed months of pay.
Workers have had enough so an action was organized at the company in Warsaw. The management of the company refused to come out and speak to people and instead locked up the office. Workers demanded a meeting with the managers and immediately payment.
ZSP said it would return to the office with actions until the company pays what it owes.
