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The Road Transport Inspector and the Department of Health and Sanitation have finished their investigation of work conditions at three bus companies which have contracts with the city of Warsaw: PKS Grodzisk Mazowiecki, ITS Michalczewski and MZA. The first two companies were fined 30,000 zl. (15,000 USD) and the last, 12,000 (6000 USD). This is a slap on the wrist for these companies whose practices can endanger the lives of many public transport workers and passengers.

They found that many bus drivers work extremely long hours without any break. The longest documented incident they found was a Ukrainian driver from PKS Grodzisk Mazowiecki who worked 44 hours without rest. They also found that some drivers are employed by two firms and work the norm in one, and a second shift in another. Drivers at PKS Grodzisk Mazowiecki point out that sometimes the records and falsified and the names of two drivers are written down but only one was forced to drive the whole time.

Most of these bus companies have won public tenders with the city of Warsaw. and try to offer ridiculously low prices. They cannot raise the prices even if the price of gas or labour rises.

The Dept. of Health and Sanitation also inspected the barracks where the bus drivers from PKS Grodzisk Maz. live and claimed they are not fit for living. They are referring the case to the prosecutor's office.

In May there was a small wildcat strike of bus drivers at PKS Grodzisk Maz. which was quelled by the management. Members of ZSP Warsaw and Mazowsze visited the bus drivers and documented a few cases of abuse to help some of the workers. However afterwards most of the strikers either did not return to work or were not taken back and the other drivers have yet to take decisive labour action. Of the three bus companies mentioned, only MZA, which is owned by the city, has some sort of organized union. This is a typical pattern for labour unions in Poland to be more active in the public sector than the private. Additionally, there is little labour organizing done amongst contracted workers and foreigners.

Below we are reprinting news on the strike of PKS Grodzisk Mazowiecki drivers which was printed in "Strike", the bulletin of Warsaw ZSP at the end of May.

Protest and Wildcat Strike: Bus Drivers Angry but have no Effective Strategy for Struggle

The public transport system in Warsaw is controlled by ZTM,(the Municipal Transport Board) but various companies are contracted to operate Warsaw's buses. The largest company, MZA, is operated by the City of Warsaw but also several private operators run bus lines. These companies usually have won contracts through public tenders.

One of these companies is PKS Grodzisk Mazowiecki (PKS GM) which is a privatized "worker-run company". (Such companies in Poland usually are worker shareholder schemes, quite far from any idea of collective self-management by the workers.) PKS Grodzisk Mazowiecki, like most other companies which pay shit wages, has trouble finding people to work and recruits people from impoverished areas of Poland and the Ukraine to work.

In May, members of Union of Syndicalists (ZSP) heard about problems people were having in PKS GM from some of the Ukrainian drivers. Drivers are expected to work very long hours, despite the fact that work time regulations clearly limit the hours a driver can work to 9 per day and require that they have two free days per week. However, it is not uncommon that the drivers were made to work 10, 12 and even up to 17 hours per day without overtime pay. Many Ukrainian driver worked 60-75 hours a week or even more. This is not only abusive, but extremely dangerous for both the workers and passengers; one bus driver fell asleep at the wheel in May and had a serious accident. PKS GM also committed other infractions and abuses.

Members of ZSP documented how drivers had money taken out of their wages (even up to almost 50% of their salaries) for going over "gas limits". The company set strict limits (which they often don't tell the drivers about) for how much gas should be used during a typical route. If a driver gets caught in one of Warsaw's notorious traffic jams and burns more fuel than the limit, this gets docked out of their salaries.

Other problems that workers had included that fact that PKS GM were holding workers' passports so that they couldn't leave and that the company was holding the drivers' licenses . Not to mention poor living conditions, etc.

On May 13, workers held a wildcat strike. Not all of them went on strike. Mostly it was the Ukrainian drivers, although a few Polish drivers supported the protest. We went to talk to the workers and see if there was anything we could do.

Basically, workers in this position have limited choices. They can take radical action, but then they should have a plan: storm the office of the company, make an action to get in the media, block the streets or the routes where scabs were driving, or some sort of radical direct action. Or they could go the legal route and file suits against their employees.

Unfortunately it turned out that many of the Ukrainian workers were not convinced that anything they would do could help them. It wasn't exactly true. Some pressure was put on PKS GM. A few articles got into even the mainstream news, we also gathered evidence of the firm's violations, sent them to the appropriate authorities, sent them out to the city, politicians, the transit board, etc. so that should the workers want to pursue legal action, the documentation would be there in Polish. Had the workers decided to organize themselves and take action, whether direct action or legal action, they would be in a good position to stop the abuse.

On May 15, Zenon Marek, the head of PKS GM came to the depot and gave out envelops filled with cash to the striking bus drivers. Of course this was done without any receipts or calculation as to how much was really owed to people. But it was enough to calm down some people, unfortunately.

Additionally, drivers were given a 10-day vacation to go back to Ukraine. Ostensibly, this rest was to make up for being overworked, but in reality it was just another strike-breaking technique. Unfortunately there wasn't much we could do to convince people that they need to stay and fight at that moment so we agreed to meet in June.

Follow-up

The drivers who went to Ukraine never came back and we had contact with them by mobile phones, most likely on Polish pre-paid cards that didn't work. We tried to make new contacts but there were mixed reactions. We found out that news workers didn't know what was going on and that some Polish drivers were told that the Ukrainians were "caught stealing". Apparently not all bought the bullshit and we heard a few people say that nothing changed and they didn't feel anything could be accomplished.