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Another person has managed to get back money which was wrongly deducted from his pay after our intervention. The worker from Poznan was contracted by OTTO to work in Holland. Unfortunately, he started to get different strange deductions from his salary and in the end, when there was no more work, they deducted a 500 euro penalty for supposedly breaking the contract early.
We are happy to report that OTTO resolved this problem rather quickly. The penalty was annulled, and also different "deposits" were returned to him, totaling 440 euros. The worker is now satisfied that this money and the total of 940 euros were accounted for. Another reason why is it best to act when you notice discrepancies on your pay slip.
The ZSP-IWA stands in solidarity with the workers of the Visteon Cadiz Electronica plant, struggling against the closure of the factory. We took part in the International Day of Struggle against Ford-Visteon called for by the CNT and the IWA, organizing a couple of pickets and informing the public, which was overwhelmingly sympathetic, of the situation.
Visteon is a company created by and dependent on Ford. Ford has created a network of legally independent companies through which it can outsource work, transfer funds and do all sorts of machinations to avoid tax liabilities and their responsibilities towards workers. Visteon/Ford also profits off opening up factories, shutting them down, moving money around to hide their wealth and even to cheat the workers. 450 workers in Cadiz face the elimination of their workplaces due to corporate greed. The CNT union section in Visteon is fighting against the closure, while other unions are engaged in a pantomime struggle, negotiating redundancy plans with the bosses.
All our solidarity and support goes to the uncompromising position of our sister union in Spain, which does not accept the elimination of the workplaces and which seeks to mobilize workers to struggle and not give up.
Protests have been taking place continuously against price increases. Mostly we have been riding the trams, buses and metro and giving out leaflets, calling for direct action. Today we gathered at the Centrum metro station. There people told about the different methods of direct action and called on people to act in solidarity with those not paying their fare in order to discourage the work of the ticket controllers. People spoke about social protests in other countries, including protests against transport fare increases which recently took place in Portugal. There was also an interesting discussion about the history of recent social movements in Poland, how the leaders of movements like Solidarity came into power and sold out and what lessons we can learn about the nature of politics and political power.
This year for the third year in a row, ZSP held a competition for the “Worst Boss of the Year”. Hundreds of workers write with stories of exploitation, harassment and bad working conditions. After checking details and much consideration the “awards” are given, and information from the employees is published and spread in the media. We also give information about other complaints: all the bosses are bad and deserve criticism and it is truly difficult to know which of the candidates are worse!
This year, 2 of the 3 worst employees have publicly reacted to the contest, denying the workers' testimonies. In addition, one has threatened to sue us. In response, more and more employees of these companies are writing in support, providing more testimony and evidence against these employers.
On Aug. 1, the anniversary of the start of the Warsaw Uprising, members of the ZSP left flowers and a message in front of the House of Professors by the plaque to the war-time ZSP. During the nazi occupation and war, the ZSP created the 104 Company of Syndicalists, involved in several important actions and maintained a key position in the old town of Warsaw, headquartered in the House of Professors. It was comprised mainly of syndicalist activists from the movement which existed before the war but was crushed by the nazis and the Stalinists. However there were also some people who escaped from the Warsaw ghetto at the House of Professors, as well as a group of Greeks. The 104 Company of Syndicalists also had a womens´ army. The Company started out with around 50 people but soon grew to about 1000, making it one of the largest forces in the Uprising.
For the past month, members of the ZSP have been making protests on public transport against increases in ticket prices. People go almost every day, handing out leaflets, calling on people to try to overturn the City Council's decision by means of referendum and to organize and take direct action. This means not paying the new fares, which go into effect Aug. 16 or, if people do buy a ticket, giving them away to other people. On July 30, ZSP organized an event called "Night of the Free Riders" where people were supposed to go for free on public transport in an open manner, like we have been doing for the past month. Using the tactics of flash mobs, people could organize small groups throughout the city using SMS to designate the starting points.
The action has got a lot of attention and was called a "resistance movement" in the mainstream press. Thousands of Varsovians have spoken out against the price increases although, unfortunately, far fewer participate in direct actions. However, it is likely that enough signatures will be gathered to force a referendum, unless the neo-liberals find some way to block it. At last count, about 130,000 of the 140,000 signatures needed for a referendum have already been gathered.
On July 30, the ZSP held a solidarity picket in front of a Starbucks cafe in Warsaw. The action was meant to express solidarity with Starbucks workers organizing for better working conditions and to draw attention to both the strike of Starbucks workers in Chile and the continued anti-union practices of Starbucks in the US, where a member of the IWW, Tiffany White-Thomas, was dismissed the day after revealing her union affiliation.
Following our question to OTTO Workforce about the situation of other workers in Wago-Elwag factory, OTTO said that it would pay them all the difference between what they were paid and what was in the contract. The workers were guaranteed a regular wage per hour, based on a standard work week but instead were paid for production.
Realizing this problem, OTTO would like to change the workers contracts... so that they are for production. In other words, after signing up to work under one set of conditions, the company would like to change them for less favourable ones.
Workers do not have to agree to this, but since this is a temp agency, they can simply get rid of you with a few days notice, or refuse to extend your contract for no reason. But such things are not acceptable. The only way to fight it is through organization. So now the workers have to decide - do they accept this type of treatment, or do they do something to fight for their better working conditions?
Today the lawsuit against the Tenants' Defense Committee started. A couple of members of ZSP who are also in the Committee are being sued for making a film where tenants describe their problems with their landlady.
A small picket was held outside the court. The corridors were filled with tenants and journalists who filmed the people, who were all telling stories of their difficult and even desperate living situations. There was no place at all in the courtroom and the judge was a little consternated when a group of elderly women just decided to sit on the floor of the courtroom. The landlady was not present, but was represented by her lawyer, who had been involved in a very famous case related to slander on TV in the past. The TV stations were denied permission to film and some people wanted to speak out to the judge. After some minutes, things calmed down and the Committee, which was defending itself, submitted its arguments to the court, as well as evidence. The documents submitted were mostly related to what was said in the film. Among other things, the landlady claims that the tenant is not telling the truth, but most of what was said can be confirmed in one way or another.
The lawyer for the other side asked the judge to order us to remove the material from the internet immediately, but our comrade argued that, since the result of such an action would be the same as one of the goals of the lawsuit, such an order would result in the Claimant receiving what she wanted before the case was even heard. This argument was accepted by the judge and all material will remain in place. Due to the interest in the case, many people viewed the film over the last few days, at times crashing the site due to too many visitors.
On July 9, ZSP members started to make actions in Warsaw´s public transport against the raising of fares. Leaflets are being handed out calling for action, information is stuck in the transport. ZSP supports free and collectivized transportation as a goal but, besides from propagating such ideas, it would like to encourage people to mobilize against the fare increases in an active way. This includes protests and different types of direct actions such as not paying, mutual insurance schemes against ticket controls and, for those who do have a ticket, the passing of tickets to other passengers. We have noticed that people have actually started to practice the last one a little more recently.
We do not agree with the fare increase which hits the working poor the most and will make Warsaw´s public transport more expensive than in many cities in Europe. Besides this, we will continue to point out the various labour problems which exist, especially for bus drivers who are often forced to work too much for miserable pay, impacting on their health and safety and the safety of the passengers as well.
