Solidarity Picket in Wroclaw

poland / czech / slovakia | workplace struggles | news report Sunday January 13, 2008 16:20 by ZSP - ZSP info at zsp dot net dot pl http://zsp.net.pl/english

Auchan fires union activist after protest

On Friday the Wroclaw section of the Union of Syndicalists (ZSP) held a solidarity picket for a fired activist of Workers' Initiative in front of an Auchan supermarket. The activist was fired from Auchan in Zielona Gora shortly after there was an action demanding better wages and work conditions there.

On December 31 Auchan hipermarket in Zielona Gora fired Piotr Krzyzaniak, an activist of Workers' Initiative Trade Union, on disciplinary grounds. On December 15th there was the rally in front of the Zielona Gora Auchan demanding better working conditions.

Piotr Krzyzaniak is the 9th activist of the Workers' Initiative fired for union activity.

ZSP members and supporters in Wroclaw organized a picket. (Other cities will organize pickets only in two weeks has WI asked for actions to be done then.) The activists gave out a few hundred leaflets and had a banner which read "Enough Repression for Workers' Activism". After some 40 minutes, a security guard tried to verbally intimidate the protestors and asked them to follow him inside the building. The protestors ignored him. About 15 minutes later, all the leaflets were already gone and the activists were ready to go home when the guard came back with 8 of his colleagues and the director of security. They tried to threaten the activists which made them resolve to stay.

The activists turned the main entrance of the supermarket into an arena for discussion on exploitation in the market. They also discussed the meaning of freedom of speech and assembly and public spaces. The head of security for some strange reason tried to convince the activists to take their protest to the Voivoidship Office, where she claimed those types of protests belong and, when that failed, claimed that they had the "wrong Auchan" and that supermarket was owned by "a different Auchan". The security guards' boss claimed that "repression of workers was something that existed under Stalinism" and that "these days if somebody is repressed, it's his own fault and it means that he's a loser". The ZSP activists tried to ask the security guards how much they earn and how much their bosses earn. The head of security intervened and tried to claim that security guards earn less than supermarket cashiers. She also said she was a member of Solidarity union and claimed that "workers don't need crusaders like you". When she ran out of arguments, she decided to offer ZSP activists immediate employment in Auchan... as security guards. (!)

The security people claimed they really need workers as there are too many vacancies. ZSP activists pointed out that this must be a testament to the working conditions in the firm if nobody wants to work there. The activists responded that it is more likely that one day the security guards will join them than that they will join the security guards.