General strike paralyzes Silesia

The protest action by a coalition of trade unions was joined by workers from the rail, mining, metallurgical and energy sectors as well as teachers and public health service employees, Slawek Szefs reports.

The protest was called after tripartite talks between unions, employers and government on a number of burning labor and social-related problems failed to produce concrete results in January and February.

Deputy premier and economy minister Janusz Piechocinski explained the government's position in a Tuesday morning interview on the TVN24 news channel.

"This is a defeat for dialogue and earlier agreements despite the fact that the government has implemented a large number of proposals tabled by the committee,” he said.

Solidarity trade union’s Dominik Kolorz said this morning: "The aim of our action is to change economic and social policies pursued by the government. We haven't managed to alter anything because, in my opinion, the discussion started much too late. I'm convinced that were the talks initiated earlier and Donald Tusk, who is the government leader and main addressee of all these demands, would have decided on a quicker pace, then the strike might have been avoided."