Nowy Dziennik (Polish Daily News),
Sat.-Sun., September 16-17, 2006

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New York Union Members
Go to Warsaw

Polish people from the SEIU trade union will help Warsaw security employees in their battle for higher pay and better treatment.

By Ewa Kern-Jędrychowska

This week a group of five Polish people, three from New York and two from Chicago, belonging to the SEIU trade union (its New York local is 32 BJ, in Chicago it’s Local 1), left for Poland to help security employees there.  The SEIU is a union representing building service workers: porters, doormen, superintendents and security guards, so its members are familiar with problems associated with this type of work.  “We’ll be there for a week,” said Gene Szymanski of 32BJ, who’s going to Warsaw with Krystyna Rosario and Danuta Klimas.  “Our task is to go to various buildings in the capital city, such as shopping malls or office buildings, and together with our colleagues from Solidarity encourage the security guards working there to join the trade union.  One-hundred union members from throughout Poland are taking part in the campaign.”

      Szymanski, who has been a member of SEIU 32BJ for 21 years and worked in its management for nine, wants to convince Warsaw security guards that joining the trade union will give them strength, and that the trade union can fight on their behalf for better wages, healthcare and job security.

      Employees of security agencies in Warsaw complain that due to low wages they have to work a lot of overtime, they don’t receive adequate training, and some of them don’t even have employment contracts.

      As Krzysztof Zgoda, executive board member of Solidarity’s national committee in charge of helping to organize employees, told Polish Daily News, “The gross pay of a security guard in Warsaw is about five złoty per hour, or about four złoty per hour in take-home pay.  In order to earn enough to support their families, some have to work 300, or even 400 hours a month.  Due to the high unemployment rate, employers aren’t afraid that people will quit.”  Zgoda hopes that as result of the campaign, security guards will organize so as to form an entire sector of Solidarity open only to security guards.

      According to Krzysztof Zgoda’s information, approximately 26,000 security guards work in Warsaw and vicinity. There are approximately 250,000 of them throughout Poland.  “We’re starting out with the capital city, and then we’ll continue the campaign in other parts of the country.  I hope that during this week we’ll manage to reach several thousand security guards, of whom several hundred will join the union.”

      SEIU organizes campaigns of this type throughout the USA, as well as abroad, for example in Germany.

      “That’s because there are certain gigantic security agencies that have divisions worldwide, including Poland.  Unfortunately they provide very bad working conditions for their employees,” Cynthia Kain, SEIU spokesperson, told our newspaper.  There are such companies as Swedish Securitas or the British firm Group 4 Securicor.  We’d like to help their employees in their battle for a higher standard of work.  We hope that thanks to this campaign they’ll understand that a group can achieve more than individual persons.”