http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1 <http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue =345&NrSection=3&NrArticle=20940> &IdPublication=4&NrIssue=345&NrSection=3&NrArticle=20940 >From the Front Office to the Factory Floor by <http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue =345&NrSection=3&NrArticle=20940#author> Boyko Vassilev, Wojciech Kosc, Sinziana Demian, and Pavol Szalai 30 October 2009
For some the change to capitalism just meant nepotism with a different face. For others, it was a frightening and exhilarating step into a new world. A TOL Special Report. [As we look at how life has changed - or stayed the same - over the past 20 years, TOL correspondents in Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia asked people in various professions to describe their working life today compared with conditions before 1989. This collection of interviews with unionists and managers is the fourth in the series that resulted.] See more special coverage of the anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain at our 20 Years After <http://20years.tol.org/> website. [...] LIVIU TIROIU, 56, ROMANIA Tiroiu was a supervisor in various positions, including director of production, for automaker ARO Campulung from 1979 until 1999. My work was rather pleasant, I have nothing to complain about - even if on the technical side we lacked lots of things. We had very good communication with our people and we always met our quota. ARO was an essential part of the Romanian economy back then. It was closely monitored and supervised by the state, by the party, by everyone. So even if it was difficult, it was also rewarding working there. We had good salaries, we could live very well in those times. It's probably worse now than before. Back then we were much better coordinated and we only had one job or activity - we were employees, and that's that. We wouldn't have thought of . having a second job. I used to work 10 to 12 hours every day, no problem. And Sundays, too - I had, at most, one free Sunday every month. [After 1990] there came some confusing times, because we used to export about 85 percent of our cars. We rarely sold cars in Romania, and then to the army, police, ambulance, farms, and only very occasionally to private individuals. Immediately after 1990, people started saying we should wrap up all this export business, that Romanians needed cars. So we started concentrating on Romania. It seems that that was a mistake. The relationships between us and exporters became weaker, as we didn't supply enough cars anymore. . [The employees] started shifting from the communist system, where they were coordinated, controlled, and punished, to freedom. They stopped obeying any rules . which made our product lose quality and quantity. When we woke up, in '93 or '94, it was already a bit too late. The foreign market had become more demanding of better quality, while we had the exact same product, with no improvements. So, automatically, we started losing markets - and we lost quite a few of them. [In the late 1990s, centrist parties came to power, while most at ARO were Social Democrats. Tiroiu says in 1999 he was removed for political reasons. He then became general director at IATSA - the sales and service unit of the Dacia carmaker - which he also privatized in 2004, when it had 2,700 employees. This involved firing much of the staff. He was there until 2004.] [Firing people] was very difficult. I knew these people well, and I had a hard time going to them and telling them up front that they had to leave. Some understood, some didn't. Some who were closer to retirement took it easier, especially since they would also receive severance packages. But it was also very difficult at times, when we had to let young people go - even two from the same family, which we tried to avoid in the beginning. In the end the only criterion to keep people was how valuable they were, not that someone else from that family had been let go beforehand. Of course there were very difficult moments at times - strikes, battles with the unions, etc. [When Tiroiu left IATSA he went to work at a former state-owned automotive plant that a friend had taken over.] [IATSA] had only 50 employees, which was really peanuts for me to supervise, and I moved to a plant with 750 employees. I worked hard here as well, and I brought it down to 400 workers, because it was unproductive. This was well demonstrated - from 750 workers and 3 to 4 million euros' worth of production, we brought it to 400 workers and 9 million euros . but we also had to invest massively, of course. Say whatever you want, but the communist regime had a large work force overload and was unproductive. Back then people couldn't believe that you could get twice the profit with half the workers. [When independent unions formed] some excited guys came around and started telling people that they'd protect them from directors, that they'd get this and that. And it was a setup. Look around today - some of the richest people in Romania today are union leaders. Some run mega-businesses. Had they been real unionists, they'd have stuck with the people. So step by step, this became a profession and a business, too. I didn't feel threatened [by unions], although there were times when they yelled "down with the thief" at me. But it was just something fashionable to do, because we never stole anything. And we proved that - simply because there was no way to steal back then. NOW you can steal legally. Then you couldn't . . You'd make a car and had to prove exactly where everything was going in that car. I told them, "Brothers, do understand that I don't steal. I can't even sell it cheaper. I can sell it more expensively, but that wouldn't be good for the client - and why would I do that and lose my clients?" That we could do certain things, sure - and yes, we did them, why not admit it? Instead of giving you a car I would give it to someone who would bring me some cheese, game, or fish afterward. But not for money. There was nothing to spend it on, anyway. So this was the only thing - instead of giving it to one person you'd give it to someone else. Those were the only perks. But, yes, I had plenty of discussions with the unions. But I was never afraid. I would speak to their leaders, not to the workers personally. They knew me, and they never came up to me to say, "You did this and that." [On working with less supervision after 1990] You can really lose yourself at some point, . if you're not serious about your job now that no one comes in to check up on you. . If you yourself don't work hard and impose your own rules for others to see, then you lose your way very fast. Important men and companies have lost their way like that, very suddenly, even if they had started out well. It's not easy to teach and control yourself. DAN CATRINU, 58, ROMANIA Catrinu has been a mathematics teacher since 1973. In 1990 he moved to Campulung in the south and was elected president of his school's new union. Within a few months, he set up a teachers' union for the entire region. It is affiliated with the Education Free Union Federation, representing 640 members in 33 schools. He was deputy president of the local union from 1990 to 1995, and has since been president. It has won more than 500 cases in court. In the beginning the unions had a tough time because of the mentality of those times: the communist mentality. [People] basically only claimed easy gains but didn't want to get involved at all. It was very hard because unions and union federations were being set up all the time, so there was tough competition. You had to demonstrate your abilities through your actions and results in order to attract members. They kept coming and asking, "What's the union going to give me if I join, what's in it for me?" Gradually we managed to change their mentality and show that the union is a power that deals foremost with securing rights: social, monetary, etc., and less with individual gains. Among teachers there's a lot of envy and misunderstanding, as we don't have very good salaries. We see how children and parents who bring their children to school often have [a higher] living standard . and so many of our colleagues adopt various unorthodox ways in order to increase their incomes. [Teachers] sometimes leave behind this solidarity idea when they are lied to, over and over again, by the government. . For example, in 2008, as part of the electoral campaign, they started promising that they'd amend the law and increase teachers' salaries by 50 percent. All political parties agreed, and so did parliament. They were falling all over each other to be the ones to increase the salaries. Then [Calin Popescu-]Tariceanu became prime minister and said that they didn't have the money for it. . And look, not even to this day have [the parties in power] granted some older rights, which Tariceanu implemented in his time. Let's not even talk about the 50 percent raise. And so teachers have become sick and tired of hearing all those lies. Unfortunately, unions can't really do much about all this. Stopping the teaching process is a bit inhuman, because those who would ultimately suffer are not those in the government who pay our salaries, but the students. So we choose to go to court instead - and this has been successful so far. Yes, the communist union from before '89 was only in charge of collecting dues. It didn't really do much else. Only on New Year's Eve they would give small presents to employees who had children - so if you didn't have children, you wouldn't get anything. Or they would give gas boilers; or young married couples would get some living arrangements through the union. It also had a role in organizing cultural events, a role we also have today. A union leader must have political support these days only if he is interested in politics himself. Getting rights for your union does not presuppose certain ties with certain political factions. Because politicians in this country are very sneaky and not at all reliable. The most difficult part [of my work] is to try and convince the people that it is not all about receiving, but also about giving and sticking together in the union fight. Here's an example: when we organize a two-hour warning strike, let's do it thoroughly not just mock it. They should not think of it as "Catrinu's strike" or the "Bucharest leaders' strike." Let's do it properly, because no one will die of hunger if they cut two hours from a monthly paycheck. It's very hard to convince people. They give you all sorts of looks. Another very difficult thing is to convince people that they don't have just rights, but also some obligations. [...] Boyko Vassilev is a moderator and producer of the weekly Panorama news talk show on Bulgarian National Television. Wojciech Kosc is a TOL correspondent in Poland. Sinziana Demian is a writer for Formula AS magazine in Bucharest. Pavol Szalai covers foreign affairs for SME, a daily newspaper in Slovakia Copyright C 2009 Transitions Online ---------------------------- Vali "Noble blood is an accident of fortune; noble actions are the chief mark of greatness." "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." Aboneaza-te la <mailto:[email protected]> ngo_list: o alternativa moderata (un pic) la [ngolist] Please consider the environment - do you really need to print this email?
