TPSA union threatens industrial action over job losses

NSZZ Solidarity, the biggest trade union at TPSA, announced yesterday that it was considering strike action. On December 5 the trade union, with 17,000 members at TPSA, declared that it was officially in dispute with the company's management over plans to cut the workforce by one fifth and the failure to begin pay talks that were supposed to open by December 1. According to Solidarity, the management is also refusing to discuss redundancy arrangements for the employees who are to be dismissed. The strike threat follows the announcement by TPSA financial director George Storozynski of a 12,500 reduction in the TPSA workforce, later corrected by TPSA president Marek Jozefiak to between 10,000 and 12,000. According to the trade union, possible industrial action may begin with a two-hour warning strike. If this fails to produce a solution to their grievances, a general strike would probably follow in January. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 23) P.W.