APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200070023-3
social, economic, and particularly labor situation is still in a state of change.
Fundamentally, however, the changes initiated by Gierek are a reaction to the situation that he inherited from Gomulka, and understanding of the present position of labor must be based on an examination of the situation in which the average Polish worker found himself on the eve of the December 1970 events.
a. The anatomy of mismanagement
In the late 1960's some of Poland's endemic economic problems became more acute. In agriculture conservatism continued to be at cross purposes with efficiency, even though the drift of the population to the cities during the postwar period, combined with rising agricultural investment, had raised agricultural productivity above the prewar level. By 1970, however, several bad harvests had combined to produce a serious shortage of major food items—including meat, which in Poland is considered a staple.
The nonagricultural sector fared even worse. Disorganized by sporadic reforms and conflicting directives, industry was unable to adapt its output to changing patterns of industrial and consumer demand. Uneconomic utilization of manpower was reflected in overstaffing and the assignment of workers to jobs which they were over- or under qualified. In the economy as a whole this took the form of simultaneous shortages and surpluses. Labor redundancy on the enterprise level was virtually built into the system, for fulfillment of production goals was encouraged even at the cost of exceeding the wage fund or the employment plan. Moreover, favoritism in hiring was rampant. Industry's problems were further intensified by the generally inadequate skill levels of the labor force, and the lack of labor discipline. The movement of the population to urban areas required farm workers to transfer to nonagricultural occupations, where they were inexperienced and unskilled, and many found it difficult to adapt to the demands for reliability, punctuality, and diligence necessary to an industrial production schedule.
Despite major improvements, working conditions were poor in many branches of industry, and industrial health and safety precautions compared unfavorably with those in Western countries. Excessive heat, noise and vibration, poor sanitation and lighting, and inadequate ventilation ranked among the most frequently criticized safety problems in Polish industry. Little advance was made in these basic areas of worker comfort and protection, despite a fourfold increase between 1955 and 1970 in expenditures to promote labor safety. There had been a gradual reduction of the workweek since 1968 to 46 hours (8 hours on weekdays and 6 hours on Saturdays) for most workers. But many workers—especially those in industries, such as shipbuilding, where delivery deadlines have a profound effect on the pace of work, habitually worked overtime at complex wage rates more often geared to output than to hours worked.
Moreover, complex and often arbitrary wage rates became a focus of labor dissatisfaction. In assessing the economic background of the events of December 1970, the Gierek leadership in February 1971 admitted that:
- during the years 1966-70, Poland had the lowest rate of increase in real wages of all the countries of CEMA (Council for Economic Mutual Assistance) ... There were some groups of workers which actually suffered a decline in their real wages.
Indeed, although marked improvement took place after 1956, the low income level in Poland remained a source of intense dissatisfaction. A small group of public figures—leading government and party officials, prominent scholars, scientists, artists, composers, and others—received generous salaries and valuable fringe benefits. For the average worker, however, income was low relative to prices, and the purchase of a suit or a radio set required careful budgeting. Most families found it difficult to make ends meet on a single salary, and urban wives frequently worked out of economic necessity. Family income was supplemented in other ways: by moonlighting, renting rooms, or raising fruits and vegetables at home, and sometimes illegally, by operating a nonlicensed repair shop, engaging in currency speculation, or selling black market goods.
The minimum wage in 1970 stood fixed by law at 850 zlotys a month, although admittedly this legal minimum had little effect on prevailing wage rates and the average worker earned much more. Wage scales favored workers employed in mining, construction, or heavy industry. Polish coal miners have been traditionally well paid. Since 1960 their earnings have been at least 50% higher than the average industrial wage, and in 1970 average monthly wages in coal mining were about 4,281 zlotys, compared with 2,515 zlotys for industry as a whole. Workers in metallurgy, too, by common practice are paid more than most other industrial workers, earning 3,200 zlotys monthly in 1970. Average monthly wages in construction were 2,986 zlotys and somewhat less in machine building, metalworking, chemicals, and other heavy industry branches. Wages in light industry ranged from an average 2,000 zlotys monthly (textiles)
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200070023-3
