Poland's Solidarity demand job security, shipyard aid

Dec 16, 2009, 0:20 GMT

Warsaw - Several thousand members of Poland's Solidarity trade union from throughout the country marched in Warsaw on Tuesday demanding job protection and government aid to the country's ailing shipyard industry.

Shipyards in Gdynia and Szczecin, famous for anti-communism protests in the 1980's, remain unsold after investor Particulier Fonds Greenrights missed an August deadline to transfer funds to finalize the purchase.

'I'm a trade unionist supporting my fellow union members. Today it touches the shipyards, tomorrow it might be us,' Miroslaw Kozlowski, regional head of Solidarity in the northern Elblaskie region, told German Press Agency dpa. 'I have a sad picture of the last several years of government. Unfortunately they don't take us seriously in our efforts to secure our workplaces.'

Kozlowski said he wanted the government to protect unemployment benefits for laid-off shipyard workers. Organizers said many workers there had collected their last paychecks in December as the shipyards remain without serious investors.

The protesters, carrying the characteristic red and white 'Solidarnosc' flags, also demanded government aid to the struggling defence and railway sectors amid recent budget cuts.

The yards have failed to find new investors that would keep shipyard production going. They flourished in the 1980s, but ran into financial hardship after the fall of communism in 1989 and were kept afloat by state aid and production guarantees.

Poland is attempting to sell the yards' assets and use the proceeds to repay creditors and return aid that the European Union considers illegal.

The protesters threw firecrackers at the Finance Ministry, then made their way to the chancellery of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, where they burned a stack of tires and blew whistles.

The demonstration came days after the 20th anniversary on Sunday of when martial law was declared in 1989 in an effort to crack down on Solidarity, which was then lead by Lech Walesa.

Solidarity chair Janusz Sniadek said he was bothered by accusations that the protest was disquieting anniversary celebrations.

'In Poland,' Sniadek told the crowd, 'there are people even today that must fight for their bread and their place of work.'