News

Polish union Solidarnosc stepped up its fight for a collective agreement with Solid Security in Warsaw by leafletting on the issues affecting Polish security workers at IKEA’s worldwide flagship store in Stockholm. IKEA is Solid’s leading client in the Warsaw market.



With help from the Swedish Transport Workers Union and other UNI affiliates in the UNI Property Services Sector, Solidarnosc ran an advertisement in a leading Swedish daily newspaper, the Svenska Dagbladet, highlighting the key issues in this ongoing dispute: failure to pay into the Social Fund, which provides healthcare and leave benefits to the children of security workers, and discrimination against workers for union activity.



“This action was a great example of international union solidarity,” said Head of UNI Property Services Alice Dale. “UNI Property Services affiliates and Solidarnosc wanted to ensure that IKEA’s top leadership in Sweden understood the pressure and intimidation that security workers face at the store in Poland and we feel we accomplished that.”



The advertisement and leafleting on December 30 garnered local and national press coverage in Sweden. Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter also sent a reporter who interviewed Solidarnosc leaders and a Solidarnosc Solid worker-representative who was physically threatened and then fired for his union activities. Swedish television stations were present and interviewed Solidarnosc leaders. The story ran on national and local television news stations.



It is clear that IKEA corporate management has been fully apprised of the situation in Poland, Dale said. The question now remaining is whether Solid and IKEA will take action to see that these injustices are resolved.



Click on related documents to see a bigger version of the advertisement that ran in Svenska Dagbladet.