Up to 1,000 trade unionists from the Rolling Stock Repair Plant (ZNTK) are protesting outside the Chancellery of the Prime Minister in Warsaw.

The activists are afraid that the plant in the north-east town of Łapy will be closed, which will translate into making around 400 employees redundant.  

The unionists are burning tires and waving banners saying: “ZNTK survived 147 years. You want to destroy it”.

They want to meet the PM Donald Tusk and ask him to reverse the decision of the PKP Polish Railways to abandon their cooperation with the ZNTK. 

The PKP Polish Railways is the main customer of the ZNTK in Łapy, commanding 80 percent of its production. If the company quits the services of the ZNTK, the plant will be closed and 400 out of 750 workers will be made redundant in April and May. 

It is rather unlikely that the PM meets the protesters as he is currently busy taking part in a hot debate over the financing of political parties in the Polish Parliament. 

The unionists announced that they would continue organizing demonstrations in Warsaw until their demands are finally met. “We hope that the government will finally wake up and understand that Poland is not confined to Warsaw and that people who work elsewhere also want to have a decent life”, said the unionists. (mg)