We support the Jeremias strikers

Workers at the Jeremias factory in Gniezno have been on strike for the past week. Jeremias is a German company that manufactures chimneys and flues.

80% of the production workers at this plant, which employs 300 people in all, are on strike. The dispute began more than 8 months ago, and the representatives of OZZ-IP (Workers' Initiative) have been able to go through all the stages of the Polish right to strike (negotiations with the employer and a finding of deadlock, the subsequent decision by the union to call a strike, the organisation of a referendum, a majority vote and a quorum of more than 50% of the employees concerned, etc.), so the strike is legal.

The workers' daily lives were difficult and dangerous, with heavy metal parts and harmful chemicals being handled. The dispute is about better working conditions (longer breaks) and better pay (a €190 increase, fairer calculation of bonuses and monthly payment of overtime). Striking is an important action in Poland, where working conditions are difficult, wages are low and the right to strike is extremely complicated. 

The employer acted against them several times during those five days, on the first day dismissing the OZZ-IP delegate who had been reinstated by court order, and managing to isolate the strikers in a warehouse with no access to water. To increase the pressure on the strikers, it hired the law firm US Littler to challenge the legality of the strike. In response, OZZ-IP organised demonstrations, rallies and pickets outside the factory.

The member organisations of the International Labour Network of Solidarity and Struggle affirm their support for the Jeremias strikers; we are publicising their struggle throughout our various countries.

Link to the online strike fund: http://www.zrzutka.pl/m2xrgk