TP unions picket French embassy over redundancy plans

According to the Polish Press Agency (PAP), representatives of nearly all unions active in TP picketed in front of the embassy. The French government is the main shareholder in France Telecom (FT), the strategic investor in TP. Several weeks ago, TP's management board announced that in 2005 it is going to implement the next stage of restructuring employment and to cut 3,500 jobs. According to unions the real figure is closer to 4,000. The unions held a press conference on Friday and emphasized that the decision of their employer is a huge surprise for them, taking into consideration earlier declarations of TP president Marek Józefiak and FT president Thiery Breton. In an official statement issued by FT on the issue, the company supported TP management board's decision claiming that this decision has been forced upon them due to the increasingly competitive nature of the Polish telecommunication market. TP unions nevertheless have declared that they will ballot their members regarding strike action over the redundancies. (Parkiet, p. 5) A.F.