Unemployed workers protest across the country against government inaction

In Szczecin, Warsaw and Siemianowice Slaskie, workers and union members protested against unemployment and the plight of their workplaces. Almost three thousand employees of the Szczecin Shipyard took part in yesterday's "March of Silence". Shipyard employees marched to the building of the bank PKO BP and finally to the Voivodeship Office building in Szczecin and handed over petitions appealing for more effort on the part of banks and the government to save the ship-building industry. Further protests are planned for today. "This time it might be a more disturbing protest, for example blocking the city," said protest committee spokesman Jerzy Mozdzynski. However, shipyard employees excluded the possibility of joining the Self-Defense (Samoobrona)-led actions. Also in Warsaw, several hundred unionist from the cable production plant in Ozarow protested against the plant's closure. To get to the presidential and prime minister's buildings, workers marched nearly 20 km from Ozarow near Warsaw. In Silesia, meanwhile, two hundred employees of the Jednosc steelworks took part in demonstrations in Siemianowice Slaskie, expressing their discontent at their current situation. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B3) M.T.