A-Infos (en) Poland, Warshaw, POST OFFICE WORKERS SCREWED BY BOSSES AND UNIONS

On Sunday, December 17, 2007, anarchists held a picket in front of the 
main post office in Warsaw in order to protest the deal most trade 
unions made with the bosses and to show solidarity to those who had 
still not signed the deal and who were deciding that day whether or not 
to renew strike action. In Nov., wildcat strikes broke out in several 
post offices in Poland. These were transformed into regular strikes, 
with union negotiations. The postal workers' demanded wage increases of 
about 175 euro a month, an 8-hour working day and overtime payments. 
Letter carriers also demanded lighter loads, without junk mail 
advertisement. Several unions signed an unfavourable deal on behalf of 
the workers, calling it a "victory for both sides". In manipulative 
press information, the unions and bosses decided to focus not on the 
monthly raise agreed, which averages about 25 euro a month gross, but on 
the "yearly bonus" of 600 zloty (gross) – about 150 euro. What we then 
found out was that the bonus is a sham; in reality, instead of getting a 
new bonus, the post office is giving the workers cash instead of 
supermarket coupons worth the same value that they had been getting as 
Christmas bonuses. In reality, they'll get even less because the cash 
will be taxed at a different rate.

What about the other demands? In reality, everything looks like the 
bosses put themselves in a great position to force even more overtime 
and to soon start mass layoffs.

Among the worst parts of the deal is the part about junk mail. Now, 
instead of giving it to regular mail carriers to deliver as part of the 
mail, it will either be contracted out to private firms or given to mail 
carriers to be delivered on a contractual basis. Unfortunately, junk 
mail constitutes a substantial part of the income of the post office. 
What do people think - that using the same income base, the post office 
is actually going to free the mail carriers from a significant part of 
their load and hire out even more workers and incurr even more costs? 
We're afraid that the following is the most likely scenario:

- that part of the mail carrier's work will be hired out to those who 
deliver leaflets now, who don't get any benefits and who don't have 
regulated work hours

- that due to the smaller delivery loads, the post office will lay off 
some mail carriers (the unions made no agreements about employment levels)

- that laid-off mail carriers will be offered contracts as junk mail 
leaflet carriers, with no benefits

- that some mail carriers will take some small contracts to deliver junk 
mail as a way of supplementing their incomes as overtime work, only on 
much worse conditions than regular overtime

- that when the private post offices start competing in all areas, 
layoffs will occur (the government was scheduled to remove all bans to 
competition in 2007 but they have applied for a two-year delay)

- that totally outrageous and unrealistic "work norms" that the unions 
signed will be used as a legal pretext to fire people

What the bosses' unions are calling a victory, actually is just a tiny 
pay rise, about 15% of what the workers wanted, and a more precarious 
situation. The bosses of the post office includes 150 useless managers 
with fat salaries hired through political cronyism just before the new 
government came into power and the old director, set in position by the 
ruling party creating second directors for postal administrative units. 
The bosses waste money right and left and are building a new expensive 
HQ for their bureaucrats. The white collar workers at HQ get much higher 
bonuses. The bosses gave up nothing, none of the fake manager positions 
were liquidated, and the post just keeps upping the price spent on their 
new HQ.

People from the Anarchist Federation Praga and International Workers' 
Solidarity picketed at the main post office in Warsaw with the slogan 
"Directors of Polish Post to work for 1000 złoties". The protest was an 
attempt to highlight the relationship between workers and management, to 
show solidarity and present a critical view of the unions' deals.

The struggle continues...
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