Poland between the Virus and the election: This government is better for us workers!

"of Course, this government is better for us workers!" Novel, the grinder, can talk diplomatically, but also at times with his big hands thump the table; otherwise he would not have done well in the trade Union career. Novel is chief of the section of the air travel industry and lives in Rzeszów. This is the last big city in the Southeast of the country, marriage Poland, Ukraine and Slovakia in the Carpathian mountains meet in a triangle to each other.

Gerhard Gnauck

Political correspondent for Poland, the Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, based in Warsaw.

"it is Important for us in the Region is the fact that here, from privatized state enterprises and new companies has formed an aviation Valley", says the unionist. The term "valley of air travel," be short to come after 2000. "At the final Assembly or delivery to the aircraft and Helicopter up to a hundred thousand jobs hanging here."

Many foreign companies to manufacture in the "valley of air travel"

Here is the finished foreign corporations, Pratt & Whitney, and Leonardo, and Sikorsky assembled the combat helicopter "Black hawk". MTU, too, claims to be Germany's leading engine manufacturer, developed and manufactured in Rzeszów, since 2009, with turbine parts for Airbus, Boeing, Cessna and Gulfstream. MTU Aero Engines Polska has a workforce of more than a thousand employees.

In that day meeting of the solidarity is in Rzeszów-trade unionists from the air travel industry. The Solidarność (solidarity) was, when it was founded in 1980, more than a Union: it was with ten million members, in fact, the largest opposition movement that has ever arisen in a Communist dictatorship. In the meantime, the solidarity movement has shrunk to nearly 600,000 members, but it is still the largest trade Union in the country.

the novel tells what he sees in the government's policy. He called the lowering (of the previous government, raised) retirement age and the increase in the value of the minimum wage: "five years Ago, it was the equivalent of 380 euros, now there are 580." Then the reduction of precarious work contracts and the far-reaching abolition of the trade on Sunday; just mom-and-pop stores can now open on Sundays. "So the workers are free on Sunday, and unemployment and sales has not affected." The tripartite dialogue between government, employers and workers had become better.

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novel Mr Andrzej is the solidarity-in-chief in a helicopter factory in the town of Świdnik. The mechanic has later studied law and knows all the Details of the Corona of the Situation: "fortunately, our plant with 2800 employees haven't had a single infection."

With the employer had been agreed in his work, due to the weaker demand on a reduction in working hours by 20 per cent; the wages were to be ten percent reduced. The plant had announced a few days ago, the dismissal of 200 colleagues – and at the same time, the development and production of a "one hundred percent of the Polish" new multi-purpose helicopter.

The industry came into the spotlight, as the PiS-government in 2016, was one of the predecessors finished negotiated a billion-dollar business with the European Airbus for the delivery of 50 Caracal helicopters for the army burst. That's why a German was even canceled-Polish-French summit.