100,000 Poles protest low pay, longer days
WARSAW, Poland — Threatening a general strike, throwing smoke grenades and blowing whistles, about 100,000 Polish union members marched through Warsaw on Saturday to vent their anger against the government’s labor and wage policies.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government is rapidly losing support after recently raising the retirement age, announcing an overhaul of the pension system, and relaxing some labor code provisions that allow for longer daily and weekly working hours.
City authorities blocked traffic in central Warsaw to allow the demonstrators to march to the historic Castle Square with flags and balloons in national white-and-red colors, banners displaying “We are Coming to Get You” and “Tusk’s government Must Go,” and individual signs reading: “I am Tusk’s Slave.”
They converged on Warsaw from all over Poland on the last of four days of major, peaceful protests in the city that also included meetings with politicians and debates with labor market experts.
Some of them have camped in front of the parliament since their first march Wednesday.
The organizers — Poland’s largest union, OPZZ; Solidarity; and groups representing various professions — said about 120,000 participated in the march Saturday. City authorities said there were some 100,000.
The unionists said that the policies of Tusk’s pro-market government hurt the interests of workers and of their families. Tusk, in his second term and sixth year in office, is Poland’s longest-serving premier since the fall of communism in 1989.
A protester, Andrzej Kulig, said the government never listens to workers’ needs.
“Our situation is getting worse and worse, and our government doesn’t listen to us,” Kulig said. “We want them to hear us today, to hear our protest and to know that they don’t govern very well.”
A nurse interviewed on Polish private TVN24 said that after 31 years in her job, her monthly earnings are $630.
OPZZ leader Jan Guz said the march was a warning and if the government does not change its policies “we will block the whole country, we will block every highway, every road” to demand better work conditions.
“We don’t accept a policy that leads to poverty,” Guz said amid the noise of whistles and horns.
The marchers complained of large-scale layoffs after economic growth slowed down to 1.9 percent of gross domestic product last year from 4.5 percent in 2011. They want job security and contracts that guarantee health care and retirement benefits at a time when unemployment is at 13 percent and many companies offer short-term contracts without social security.
Workers say average monthly wages of about $1,150 before tax are among Europe’s lowest. They also want the reversal of a recent raise in the retirement age to 67 years from the previous 60 years for women and 65 years for men.