A-Infos (en) Defend the right to form a Trade Union!

Solidarity can beat the Bosses!This Friday, the 4th of July marks the start of a 
week of actions against Lionbridge, a multinational translation and software 
development company in support of the right of workers to organise in trade 
unions. ---- Groups of workers from Ireland, Poland, Denmark, Spain, America and 
elsewhere will hold pickets outside the offices of Lionbridge to mark the start 
of a case taken against the company in Poland by Jakub G. ---- Jakub has been 
working for the company for almost 8 years and received several promotions 
before becoming active as a trade-union organizer. Shortly after a union was 
formed in Warsaw he was fired by Lionbridge. To get around the Polish law which 
prohibits the sacking of union representatives without good cause, the bosses 
said that Jakob had leaked confidential company information to an internet website.

Related Links:Campaign Home Page Picket in Dun Laoghaire

The allegation was a lie and the information referred to is long in the public 
domain. It was certainly not confidential, in fact even the Irish Independent 
has written about it.

We interviewed Jakub to find out why he was involved in starting a union in 
Lionbridge, why he was fired and what is happening now.

What led to your decision to form a union in Lionbridge?

Trade unions are an essential tool that empowers workers to stand up for their 
rights and forge links with other fellow workers. The current political climate 
in Poland is extremely hostile to trade-unions and bosses are doing what they 
can to portray workers organizations as an "obstacle to progress". 
Unfortunately, many workers seem to believe the ideology of the ruling class. 
Many people in other countries remember the "Solidarity" movement and believe 
that unions are a strong and respected part of Polish society. Nothing could be 
farther from the truth. Today, unionized workers represent only a small fraction 
of the workforce and union rights are constantly curtailed by new neoliberal 
legislation.

The office workers sector in particular is very weakly unionised - that's why 
organizing workers in a company like Lionbridge is so important. The policies of 
cost-cutting and related cuts in bonuses and frozen wage rises are strongly 
felt, as global corporations try to maximize profits, thus accelerating the 
global economic downturn. In this context, workers are always last to receive 
proper compensation for their work. The situation of external temporary 
contractors is even worse.

A union is simply indispensable to stop the relentless erosion of working 
conditions.




Lionbridge - attempting to smash Unions!

How did the company find out about it?

We made no secret of it - the existence of the union was announced publicly as 
soon as it was registered. We did not disclose the full membership of the union, 
which at first was over 15% of the 300 people employed in the Warsaw office.

The company made attempts to find out the full list of membership - which 
legally it is only allowed to do in case mass layoffs are planned. We knew there 
were no legal grounds for this request and we kept the membership secret, with 
the exception of elected trade-union representatives which are protected by the 
Labour Code. We expected problems, but we hoped the company would respect the 
Labor Code.

How did they react?

The first reactions were fairly typical. It started with comments about how 
"trade-unions are a threat to the competitiveness of a company", how "the US 
based headquarters of the company would decide to move production to 
non-unionised countries like China and India" and how "the Polish subsidiary 
would lose jobs because the trade-union was formed". The bosses made it sound 
like the trade-union is the worst thing that could happen to workers. That's not 
surprising to hear this type of statements from capitalists who benefit from 
other people's low wages - but it's sad to hear workers pick up this sort of 
thinking.

What did the company claim the reason for firing you was?

Of course they didn't say that I'm being fired because I am a trade-union 
organizer. The Polish Labour Code tries to protect elected union officials from 
being dismissed. They had to find other reasons. What they did, is actually 
common practice in Poland nowadays. They used the pretext that was used in 
dozens of other cases of dismissed union-members in Poland - the alleged 
disclosing of secret company information. Irish readers might not realize, but 
workers in Poland are not expected to speak about their salaries or working 
conditions with other workers or - god forbid - the press. This type of 
information is considered as an asset of the company that safeguards its 
competitiveness. Needless to say that workers bargaining power is hampered by 
this type of secrecy. And this is exactly what the bosses want. Coming back to 
the pretext used against me - I was accused of publishing an article that 
allegedly disclosed "secrets" and at the same time "untrue"
  information (how some piece of information can be at the same time "secret", 
presumably stolen and "untrue", presumably fabricated is beyond me). It was also 
argued that the article could damage the share price of the company, and nothing 
short of causing panic on the Wall Street. The fact that the company's shares 
kept falling steadily since the new Lionbridge management took control, after 
the acquisition of Bowne Global Solutions, did not matter. The low performance 
of the stock could not have been the effect of, say, the mismanagement of the 
company, could it? The fact that another person admitted having written the 
article did not matter either. It didn't even matter that the information 
contained in the article in question has been published months before by the 
mainstream press, including The Independent in Ireland, the Polish newspaper 
"Gazeta Wyborcza" and many other publications, including the Lionbridge website 
itself!.

What was the reaction of your collegues?

Management got what they wanted, at least for a while - my colleagues understood 
that unions are a scary business and preferred to step back and wait to see what 
will happen next. Even symbolic solidarity gestures, such as sending a protest 
letter to the management were harshly criticised as being "disloyal" and workers 
got a clear signal that any action on their part would mean them getting in 
trouble. At the same time, the management also offered them bonuses that seemed 
impossible to obtain just a few months before. All this combined ensured that 
the managers slowed down the development of a real workers representation in the 
workplace.

What is happening with your case now?

The first court hearing will take place on July 4th. This is the day a picket 
will be organized in front of different Lionbridge offices, including Dublin. 
The legal case I have filed against Lionbridge is fairly strong - in essence 
public information available on the internet for everyone to read cannot be 
treated as a secret. The company's lawyers must be aware of that if they are 
worth the money Lionbridge is paying them. It is usual that the Polish Labour 
Courts re-instate trade-union members dismissed from their workplaces.

However, it does not mean that the case will be over soon, as the company has a 
lot of money to spend on expensive lawyers and appeals.

Can you tell us about the demonstrations being organised in other countries?

Yes, demonstrations are planned in Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Denmark, Germany and 
the USA. We are trying to work with different networks and organizations 
concerned about workers rights and social justice, such as the International 
Workers' Association, Workers Solidarity Movement, Industrial Workers of the 
World and others...

What do you hope they will achieve?

It is quite probable that Lionbridge will be forced to undo their illegal 
dismissal and forced to show more consideration for basic workers rights in the 
future. I also hope that more self-organization amongst workers in Lionbridge 
will emerge as a result of the publicity around this case. This would be an 
unexpected outcome for the corporate managers who maybe hoped to crush the union 
movement once and for all.


More Links:
Jakub was accused of writing an article entitled 'Lionbridge: Globalising low 
wages' which can be read here. The piece examines Lionbridge's anti-union 
background and their policy of reducing pay to court translators in Ireland.

The real author of the article published a piece here on LabourNet explaining 
how and why the original article was written. It also states that Lionbridge 
were presented with evidence that Jakub did not write it. Obviously Lionbridge 
chose to ignore this evidence. They accused Jakub of disclosing 'secret' 
information. the information in question was all available on the net.

This Irish Independent report details the Courts Service's contract with 
Lionbridge. This issue of the Irish Translators' & Interpreters' Association 
Bulletin details Lionbridge's substandard service in the Irish courts and their 
policy of driving down wages.


There will be a picket placed on the office of Lionbridge in Dun Laoghaire on 
Friday the 4th of June from 1 to 2.
If you can make it along your support would be appreciated. The office is 
located at:
3 West Pier Business Campus
Dun Laoghaire

If you cannot make it out please consider contacting Lionbridge to let them know 
that you support Jakub and the right of workers to organise in Trade Unions:

Tel: 01 202 1200
e-mail: jacek.stryczynski@lionbridge.com
Send a copy of the e-mail to the union: info@zsp.net.pl

Related Link: http://lionbridge.zsp.net.pl/?page_id=7
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
http://ainfos.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
http://ainfos.ca/en