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	A picture is worth a thousand words. Last week, Solidarnosc, the security workers union in Poland, used children's art to send the message that most security workers have no time to spend with their famillies. Part of the union's campaign to raise working conditions in the industry, the exhibition was entitled "Fathers return home: Our children need their fathers".
As the majority of the security workers in Poland earn a meagre 5-6 zlotych per hour (equivalent to USD2-2.50) they are required to work multiple jobs in order to make ends meet. This often means working more than 300 hours per month, doing back- to-back shifts of 12 hours. Workers move from job to job and are away from their homes for days and weeks at a time.

The exhibition took place in front of the Sejm, a chamber of the Polish parliament. A union delegation delivered an appeal to the Speker of the Sejm, describing the situation of security workers, including those work for public institutions. Under Polish law, public institutions are obliged to choose those security contractors which offer the lowest price, exerting downward presure on wages and conditions for workers in the industry.

The Speaker met the delegation and viewed the exhibition, after which he asked the union for a letter with concrete proposals of changes in the law.



Supported by UNI for the past 3 years, the Solidarnosc security sector continues to grow its membership, now at more than 4,000, and is demanding collective bargaining in order to raise across the industry.