Polish shipyard workers rally to protect endangered historic yard

About 200 workers at Poland's historic Gdansk shipyard demonstrated Monday to demand the quick privatization of their struggling workplace, with some burning tires and setting off firecrackers in front of management offices.

Workers dressed in blue overalls and yellow plastic helmets held banners reading "We want a modern yard and a European level of wages."

They expressed fear that Civic Platform, a pro-business party that won Oct. 21 elections, could slow down a plan for the sell-off of the state-run shipyard, the birthplace of the Solidarity movement that helped overthrow communism.

Many workers believe that privatization is the only way to save the shipyard — and their jobs. Plans call for the yard to be sold to Ukrainian company Donbass.

The pro-market Civic Platform staunchly supports privatization, but in the case of the Gdansk shipyard, wants to examine the existing plan to ensure greater transparency once it takes power next month.

A Civic Platform lawmaker said the workers have nothing to fear.

"Privatization of the yard is necessary and under no circumstances will it be jeopardized," said Tomasz Aziewicz.

Poles have a strong emotional attachment to the Gdansk shipyard, a symbol of the demise of communism. It was there that electrician Lech Walesa led strikes in 1980 that led to the birth of Solidarity and the communist regime's eventual collapse in 1989.

During the 1990s, the yard's owners struggled with the threat of bankruptcy. More recently, it has been at the center of a dispute between Poland and the European Union, which has pressured Warsaw to shut down two of three slipways — ship assembly areas — because the shipyard is losing money and being kept alive with state subsidies.

The EU has rules preventing its member states from keeping inefficient companies alive artificially.

Source: The International Herald Tribune