Poland/Enterprises/Railways
Warsaw (Puls Biznesu) – According to unofficial sources, trade unions of PKP, Polish railways, are going to block the Warszawa Wschodnia train station in Poland’s capital for a few hours. ‘It is going to be one of Warsaw’s junctions’ Stanislaw Kogut from Solidarnosc trade union revealed. Yesterday, the representatives of several PKP companies were trying to convince the unionists not to strike. On Wednesday, during the meeting of trade unions, employers and employees of PKP, the latter ones are going to block nine junctions all over Poland.
The management of the group considers any strike illegal. ‘The management of PKP companies will demand compensation from the union’, Andrzej Wach, PKP group CEO. Only in one company of the group, PKP Intercity, the difficulties in trains running cost PLN 3 m (EUR 736,100) a day. ‘This is acting against their own company’, Tadeusz Augustowski, the CEO of PKP PLK, the company running the train routes commented.
PKP employers are against dividing passenger transport into regions and dividing the PKP Przewozy Regionalne into smaller units, which will include local authorities. The first such company is already operating in the Warsaw region – Koleje Mazowieckie. Local authorities gave the company PLN 80 m, twice as much as it was obliged to, and added PLN 200 m for new train cars and is negotiating a credit of PLN 1 billion for further investments. The company employs all old employees. ‘Trade unions from Koleje Mazowieckie do not want to strike’, Halina Sekita, Koleje Mazowieckie CEO assured.
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.245)