Attention!
Our wages are under attack ductivity in 1983 calculated in workhours returned to its pre-crisis level [the period before 1979]. However, in 1984, consumption will be still lower than it is today.
Wages are the price paid for the time used in muscular, nervous and mental exertion by the workers. The price of
The document we publish below is taken from a workers' bulletin in
Chleba i Wolnosci (Bread and Freedom), number 5, of Novem-
Warsaw,
It is one of the most complete analyses of the Polish govber 3,
1983.
ernment's anti-worker attacks that has
The attempt to formulate a series of demands is
Solidarnose press.
particularly interesting.
published in Robotnik 84, number 2/12, of March 15, 1984 bulletin of the Co-ordinating Committee of the Trade Union Solidarnosc in France.
protective state? Won't it give way to a tough state, hardly even charitable to the most deprived?' tive function of the state is in total decline.
amount of social spending by the state.' extract from an interview with a Western minister of state.
These are the words of Professor Sadowski, assistant to the government official in charge of the Economic Reform Plan, in the June issue of the review Kontakty.
However, it is this social spending that pays for free education and health care, slightly cheaper canteens in kinderat school or at work, benefits gartens, paid to the sick or for education of young children and the miserable pensions for invalids.
In our country, four of the eight million workers do particularly arduous
Three million non-mechanised work.
harmful to their work in conditions health, and at least 300,000 others risk their life or health each day at losing
The death rate for men of working work.
age is particularly high in Poland, and the life span for men is thus deaverage clining relative to that for women.
The mortality rate for young and middle-aged men is a lot higher today than in
1960.
Industrial accidents, causing permanent disability or poisoning are an immortality in working men testifies to the deterioration in working conditions and the rising level of exploitation of workers.
Today, those who leave their workplace with an invalidity pension are many more than those who leave with a retirement
But the minister who shares pension.
responsibility for economic reform thinks that we live too well.
The first general price rise in our history took place in February 1982, and was introduced under the protection of the state of war, and in the name of the economic reform plan. It was supposed to re-establish a balance between supply and demand on the market, stimulate competition between the enterprises, de-
International Viewpoint 9 April 1984 appeared in the clandestine is from the French This is the velop production and, as a consequence, bring down prices. It did none of these.
In a country where only 60 per cent of productive capacity in industry and construction is utilised, where the level of satisfaction of social needs is falling, the drop in real income has led, paradoxically, to the phenomenon of over-production of geeds. (1) The amount of goods sold retail (particularly food) calculated in fixed prices turned out less in 1983 than in 1982.
We first learned of a 'surplus' in pasta purees which rotted in the windows. the present prices it appears there are even problems in selling cement, seeds and fertilizer. Buying of coal in partic-
Real wages in industry have dropped sharply. Wages in the health, education and commerce sectors are even lower. Even for the miners, prices are going up faster than wages.
After the price rises, the enterprises became profitable and 'rich'. The state this 'commodity' should be at least high enough to enable the workers and their families to live and to get education. As negotiated prices are being introduced everywhere for all commodities, one could think that the commodity represented by labour power should not be left off the list. It is precisely because the economic crisis is continuing, and
The Lenin ship yards in Gdansk in 1980 (DR) because those who govern us cannot achieve economic growth, that Poland is one of the countries where labour power is the cheapest.
Since raising prices alone was not enough, we are being attacked on other fronts at the same time: new taxes, new question of taxes, prices and wages as different things, subject to different rules. In reality, all these measures represent one and the attempt to increase the exploitation of the worker and reduce consumption.
The rise in food prices at the beginning of 1984, the move to 'negotiated' prices for new industrial products, the rise in
There is a severe lack of consumer goods
In this situation the extraordinary price rises since 1982 have meant that a growing number of what are considered products of basic necessity - the lack of which is sorely felt by the workers - do not find buyers on the market because of their prohibitive prices. This is the phenomenon to which the authors are referring when they talk of overproduction' of goods.
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obligatory contributions in the housing cooperatives, the rise in rents and service charges will lower the real value of wages. (2) The system of taxes on the enterprises will limit, if not abolish, the possibility of winning an increase in the amount of wages. What is more, in these conditions the workers, in order to earn more, must accept Saturday working, to undertake 'of their own volition' to work after the legal hours, and accept a further speed-up.
The modification of the wage system should have already come into operation in January 1983. What did they hope to gain by postponing the wage reform announced in autumn 1982? The pacifying statements of the Catholic hierarchy? A chance to exploit the pope's visit? The collapse of Solidarnosc structures after the formal lifting of the state of war? One thing is sure: in the corridors the bargaining and pressurising is continuing.
In September, Polityka published article stating that the government should learn to say 'no' to the people, that it was time to understand that the economic reform plan implied the division of society (into what classes and layers?). It also said that the watchword of social justice should be abandoned, and replaced by 'the harsh laws of the economy. (3) So, it was probably fear of the people's reaction that led to the initial postponing of the change in the wage system. What the future holds
The workers have
They have not been given any other means of expression, 'voted with their feet' by looking for a slightly higher reward somewhere created 'organised work groups.
that they have used soldiers, 'alternative work' for conseripts, prisoners and OHP [voluntary work brigades].
While putting off the introduction of the modifications in the wage system for a time, the authorities in Warsaw and 15 other regions, made it compulsory for workers to seek employment through
Thus, the worker is forced to accept a given job in a given factory, and the enterprise has to give confirmation of the hiring within seven days. This measure is supposed to keep down wages and to maintain the wage differentials between enterprises, and to stop the workers imposing changes in the system which would be favourable to them.
The anti-worker headquarters, called by a name that is the opposite of what it really is, the •Ministry for Work, Wages and Social Affairs', published the draft of a governmental decision on a change in the wage system in the daily Reczpospolita in August 1983.
The new system of wages is supposed to mean that the compensation payments for food price rises given in 1982 18 are incorporated into the basic monthly and hourly wages. (4) So, we are going to pay dearly for the kindergarten, the creche and holidays, which are calculated on the basic salary. taxes paid by the enterprise and the cost of insurance monthly increments to compensate for the price increases, to which wage-earners are entitled, will be suppressed as will some bonuses and the holidays at the time of retiring.
for working in conditions dangerous for one's health, for night and work, will, from now on, be calculated on the basis of the minimum wage, and not for an individual worker. This will reduce them noticeably. This change is to be introduced at the same time as the new, higher work norms [for piecework]. The system of bonuses will be modified. They will only be given for extra results and extra production. In many places they will be purely and simply done away with.
The new system reduces the possibilities of rises in the framework of a graded wage scale to only two points on the index, for workers with two skills, or very high qualifications. On the other hand, bonuses for foremen and heads have been increased. The possibilities of augmenting the hourly salary by including different bonuses have been limited straightaway; altogether they cannot go above 60 zlotys per hour.
regime came to the conclusion wage system would stimulate a new pressure to increase wages' of Ministers draft already mentioned, put it. Thus it decided to operate differently.
enterprises are divided into two In most, wages from now on are supposed to include the compensation for the price rises, the thirteenth month payment, a part of the productivity payment, the bonus and the sosupplements —'useless' from the point of view of the manage-
The enterprises themselves have to find the necessary finances to increase the basic wage and pay the bonuses for training, overtime, and night and evening work. Their inability to do this will sonner or later force them to abolish all these supplements. They want to start this change in the general wage system on economic reform plan in 1982 introduced three categories of prices.
state organs which in 1982 40 percent of goods and serVIces. The regulated prices, applying to 15 per cent on goods and services in 1982, for which the law sets the way they are to be fixed (the Finally, there are the negotiated prices for the remaining 45 per cent of goods and services in
In fact, these are market prices, negotiated between the producer and buyer.
towards aligning the (member of praesidium of the Council of Ministers, and in Reforma Gospodareza,
December 1, 1983, one month before the rise in food prices.
At the same time, in a series of so-called 'experimental' big enterprises, the supplements mentioned above are to be included in the basic wage with, simultaneously, a very big differentiation in
The minister could give these higher than those allowed for in the of ficial limits (60 zlotys and 16,000 zlotys) on an experimental basis.
The management of an enterprise can take part in this experiment' if it shows that it has the means to pay it. These means will usually be obtained through a frenzied increase in prices or an increase in exports, generally unprofitable from the point of view of the economy as a whole. Such an enterprise also has to fulfil another condition: to impose a radical increase in the norms of productivity. If that works, these norms will be imposed on all enterprises in 1985. Illegal changes in wage system
They are also planning to increase the dependence of workers on the foreman. Certain workers will be able to collect supplementary sums from him during payday, and the foreman who succeeds in imposing new work norms will receive a bonus from management.
of the 'experimental' enterprises will have to go further in applying a wage system that will exact a greater extertion from the work-
The new system will increase social differentiation and try to pit worker against foreman. It will also magnify the between the experimental enterprises and the others, and widen the wage differentials in the enterprise.
In this way, the collective agreements, which give more or less the same wages for the same amount of work, will be thrown in the rubbish bin. Each manage. ment team will impose its own wage scales, norms, wages, its own 'agreement'. However, the present Labour Code and the principle of agreements by sector have not been abolished, which makes all these things illegal in the terms of the law
It is worth recalling that the principle of 'equal pay for equal work' was among the most popular demands during the legal existence of Solidarnosc. 3. Polytika is an official weekly publication of the government. Its former editor in chief, Mieezyslaw Rakowski. is deputy prime minister. Former editorial writer Jerzy Urban is a government spokesperson. 4. During the price rises in February 1982, the government introduced a general wage rise Known a: compensation (although only slightly compensated for the drop in buying power). This 'catching up' of wages, paid for by a special state budget, was not taken into account in the calculations of income for fixing the payments for various social services until 1984. 5. The latter are so-called incentive bonuses that had become part of the de facto wage. They are now being included in the formal wage. The effect of this is to make it more difficult for the workers to win rises.
International Viewpoint 9 April 1984
There is no reason why an electrician working in the militia or a military enterprise should earn more than an electrician employed in a 'normal' enterprise, which produces for the needs of the population as a whole, or an electrician working in a school or hospital or other public ser-
Nor is there any reason why an electrician should earn more when working in a big enterprise than in a small factory. Just as there is no justification for wages to be different from one section to another in the same enterprise. The wage be related to work qualifications, not to informal arrangements or the goodwill of department heads, foremen or ministers. Minimal workers demands
Collective agreements in the past guaranteed a number
This is where the idea of getting the Diet to vote a law allowing enterprises to work out 'internal regula-
These regulations, called 'local social agreements' for the purpose, will allow the directors of enterprises to manipulate the wage scales at will. Labour Code and the collective agreements remain in force. So, all the unidecisions by management
These decisions would, in the spirit of their initiaters, allow for increasing work rates, the norms, the number of machines operated by one worker, generalise the overall agreement and piece-rate work, speed up the production lines, increase the weight of loads carried by workers, increase work time and impose work in the worst conditions of hygiene and
Moreover, all these extra demands on the workers would be made without improving the technical state of even the most archaic enterprises or the organisation of the work, without getting rid of the over-staffing in administraand without changing the total
This way of distributing the cost of the crisis means that the workers will
These new anti-worker initiatives are arousing such general discontent that it is even affecting a large section of the members of the offical 'unions' and members of the PUWP. Jerzy Urban [government spokesperson|, losing his temper during a press conference, complained about unjustified demands coming even from this quarter.
Every collective group of in every factory, must take up the struggle to defend our basic living conditions. Let us try to formulate the demands that it is obvious are most important for the workers, when you have even the slightest knowledge of what they think.
1. We consider the abolition of the social gains guaranteed by the Labour Code, the collective agreements, and the International Viewpoint 9 April 1984
Gdansk, Szczcecin and Jastrzebie accords,
We consider it illegal to try impose internal wage systems in different enterprises. We consider it as contradictory with the principle of to each according to his work' to attempt to make the workers pay for the negligence and wrong decisions of the enterprise managements, for the bad organisation of the work and supplies, the chronic lack of spare parts, etc.
Even official enquiries show that the results obtained by an enterprise, expressed in terms of profit, depend 90 per cent on factors other than the workers, who are deprived of any influence on the decisions of the management, the bank or the finance ministry. equivalent salary for equivalent work, similar conditions of hygiene and security throughout a sector of and a region, in all the including those attached to We demand that the 1982 compensatory payment be kept in its present
We demand 2,500 zlotys per month for all as a compensation for the higher cost of industrial goods, services, housing and rents in 1982 and 1983.
Considering the greater training of the workers, the capacities and the skills they have acquired, as well as the difficulties inherent in working on old machines with raw materials of poor quality, we demand an increase in the basic salary of two points for all workers.
We demand wage increases in the enterprises producing for the internal market to bring them up at least to the level of the national industrial average. We demand wage increases in health and education to put them in line with the national average wage in industry, and a wage increase for service and commer-
6. A thirteenth month payment for all as in previous years.
7. Payment of the increases in pension and retirement benefits to those groups of pensioners and retirees who have not yet received the increases, in January 1984.
The enterprises pay huge taxes, which absorb
In this situation, at least that part of the tax that is levied on the total wage bill and on wages increases should be considered illegal.
This concerns direct taxation of the wage bill by the taxes destined to pay the funds for professional activity (FAZ) and the development of culture (the rate is 13 per cent) because these are fake funds not used for the stated objectives. The finances thereby obtained should rather be used to pay for wage increases, and the minimum wage should be increased to 6,500 zlotys per month.
At the same time, we demand a stop to spending on the ZOMO (riot police) and to the allocation of other funds to the ministry of the interior for administering the state of war. saved in this way should be used for the fund for the promotion of culture.
A stop to food price rises and an end to the generalisation of 'negotiated' prices for industrial products.
10. The introduction of a sliding scale of wages, as provided for in point 9 of the Gdansk accord, according to the principle of an automatic wage increase to compensate for price rises and a drop in the value of money'. The sliding scale should also apply to the benefits given for the education of children, pensions, retirement and scholarships. should go up by as much as the quarterly rise in the cost of living and prices. Such a system has been won through a hard struggle in a number of countries
11. Given that people are worn out by four years of the crisis, we demand that the present norms in work and production are maintained.
12. The order to look for work through the State Office should be repealed as illegal, because it implies an obligation to work in the enterprise and job decided by that office.
13. The obligation to give six months notice of leaving a job, which has been extended to many enterprises, should be abrogated as illegal.
14. It should be made public exactly how many millions of zlotys have been wasted as a result of gigantic, useless investments, which were and are now being liquidated, and by the senseless use of machinery and installations. This will open the way for reducing the waste through the pressure of
We all know that the present wage system is good for nothing but the rubbish bin, and the changes proposed by the regime are just a swindle. The workers in the assembly section of the FSO car plant in Warsaw and in other enterprises have already shown that by stopping work they can block a worsening of conditions. 6. These were agreements signed after the national strike in August 1980. accord brought many material advantages. was signed by the regional strike committee and government representatives on August 30. The Gdansk agreement won free trade unions. The September 3 agreement signed at Jastr zebie by the central strike committee of the Silesian mines and the regime's representatives gained the free Saturdays, and generalised the other two agreements throughout the country.
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WEST GERMANY
this demand, he said, were trade unionists who do not subordinate themselves to the logic of capitalism or try to balance between the bosses and the workers. What was needed are people who consistently represent the workers' interests. That is what Franz Steinkuehler said. And strangely enough, the most