Management take firm action to break blockade of Ozarow Mazowiecki plant

After seven months of protests and pickets blocking access to the Ozarow Mazowiecki cable production plant, Tele-Fonika Kable, the plant owner, decided to break the deadlock. At least 300 hired security guards assisted by police forced over 100 unionists out of the plant. Around two hundred policemen formed a cordon around the driveway to the factory. A couple of employees were wounded and 11 were arrested as the confrontation turned ugly, with small petrol bombs being thrown at the police. Company representatives claim that the operation was carried out in order to recover the blocked machinery and supplies. "We have exhausted all amicable methods of settling the matter," said TFK spokesman, Jerzy Jurczynski. After being sold the new owners of the cable plant announced plans to close down the factory, claiming that it was not profitable. "The liquidation of the enterprise is a fact. It is time to figure out how to sell the remaining land most beneficially," said the Mayor of Ozarow, Kazimierz Stachurski. Nobody is interested in this as long as the plant is being blockaded by employees. The unionists announced they will continue their protests and will not allow the company to recover the remainder of its assets in the plant, which are estimated to be around a couple of hundred tons of finished products, supplies and machinery. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B1; Puls Biznesu, p. 12; Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 1) A.K.