Custom workers in poland wildcat
Jan 26 2008 21:21
Quote:
Wildcat strikes by Polish customs workers brought to a halt thousands of lorries and automobiles at Belarusian, Ukrainian, and Russian border checkpoints, officials in Minsk and Kiev said Friday. Motorists were stranded in lengthening queues in both directions at the Varshavsky Most and Domachevo crossing sites, a pair of heavily-used road transit points on the Polish-Belarusian border, said Belarus customs spokesman Aleksander Tishchenko."The Polish customs workers are only admitting vehicles with diplomatic license plates," Tishchenko said, according to a Belapan news agency report. "Otherwise nothing is getting through."
Due to the shutdown of the two highway checkpoints, hundreds of long-distance lorries moving goods westward were for practical purposes trapped in Belarus, he said.
Road and rail traffic in neighbouring Ukraine also was affected by a localised strike, Ukrainian officials said, citing a Warsaw government warning on Friday that Polish customs officials would not process goods moving between Ukraine and Poland at three key rail checkpoints.
More than 1,500 rail cars already were logjammed on the Ukrainian side of the border, most loaded with ore, coal, and metal, according to a statement by the Ukrainian national customs service.
Automobile traffic jams extending more than a kilometre were reported at the Kravovets-Korchova, Rava-Ruska-Hrebenne, and Shegini- Medyka crossing points between Ukraine and Poland.
laureakai, do you know much about this?
Yes. It's been chaos. At first the lines were 30-40 km. long at the borders, now people have to wait 4-5 days despite them bringing in border guards and others to scab.
There's been a lot of disinformation - this morning the media said there was a deal, now they say there isn't. They say that the talks were a fiasco.
Now the government is saying that the strikes are being manipulated by the former government (which was supported by Solidarity) and in part by the social demoncrats (which control OPZZ). When the last government was in control and the nurses had a tent city etc., that government claimed that the "opposition" parties inspired it - so it's a political game.
I wrote about the situation on the border here:
http://cia.bzzz.net/not_so_quiet_on_the_eastern_front_frontex_assures_xenophobic_europe_that_its_doing_its_job
We're in a good position here to agitate for a general strike because it's getting close to that. Look at all the people striking: doctors, nurses, border guards, some miners, some people in other industries... the teachers want to strike, the social security workers, the post office, the railway workers and even the police... If the latter go on strike, we'll gladly shut down the city
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7009867774