Poland: Last shipyards in Gdansk threatened with closure

[Hannah Bell]

Twenty years ago, on June 4, 1989, the first semi-free elections in Poland heralded the end of the Stalinist regimes throughout Eastern Europe and the USSR. The elections were a delayed consequence of the mass strikes of 1980-81, which began at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk and went on to shake the entire country.

Twenty years later, it is debatable what there is to celebrate...The “shock therapy” of 1989 destroyed the social gains that workers had achieved, and hyperinflation massively depressed wages. In the 1990s, under the auspices of the European Union, large sections of state-owned industry were privatised and restructured, entailing further mass redundancies and wage cuts. Unemployment rose to over 20 percent. Meanwhile, over 2 million Poles have left their homeland in order to look for work abroad.

Gdansk, in the meantime, faces a complete end to shipbuilding. In 1989 over 15,000 still worked in the shipyards. Today the total is barely 3,000, the rest having fallen victim to privatization and restructuring...Net monthly wages sank last year from 3,500 to 4,000 zloty (about €800-900) to 1,700 to 2,000 zloty (about €390-450). Cuts were already pushed through in 2002 and 2003.

Even if the shipyard is not closed down, further mass redundancies and wage cuts are on the table. The Solidarnosc regional chairman, Bogdan Olszewski, told the WSWS that the union had already submitted a further proposal to cut wages and working hours.

The mood is extremely tense. Hardly anyone in Gdansk understands why billions of euros are being handed over to rescue the large banks and corporations in Europe, while Polish shipyards are being driven to ruin...

Solidarnosc functionary Olszewski rejects any international solidarity between European shipyard workers. Instead, he stands on the side of his own management and regards German and Norwegian workers as competitors: “There is a clear competition between the shipyards, and we do not want to abolish the free-market economy. Whoever builds better ships will get the orders.”

Solidarnosc has called off all protests for June 4 and instead wants to restrict its activities to a church mass. It is not likely that a significant group of workers will follow them. Due to its right-wing policies, Solidarnosc has lost considerable influence and now only organises about 2 percent of Polish workers.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/may2009/gdan-m29.shtml