Polish Economy through Gdansk case

Old Shipyard Struggles in New Poland

The troubles at the shipyard, and the reaction to it, reveal the larger contradictions in the Polish economy and society, where there is a widening gulf between those in modern businesses and those anchored in older industries like shipbuilding


By NICHOLAS KULISH
Story from The New York Times


The famous shipyard here, where the world-changing events of the Solidarity movement played out, is once again the subject of a standoff, this time between the Polish government and the European Union.

The Gdansk shipyard could go bankrupt if it is forced to pay back millions in disputed state subsidies deemed illegal by European officials. But the most surprising thing may be that there has been little popular outcry over the threat to the famous port. The nation is transfixed by the sudden collapse of its government and preoccupied with the departure of an estimated one million workers jobs in Western Europe.

The troubles at the shipyard, and the reaction to it, reveal the larger contradictions in the Polish economy and society, where there is a widening gulf between those in modern businesses and those anchored in older industries like shipbuilding.

"I am shocked now because I participated in this great strike for a better future; now after so many years the situation is hopeless for us," said Krzysztof Maciejewski. He said he was making 400 euros, or $544, a month, about a quarter of what he could make in Western European shipyards. He said many of his colleagues had left for Norway.

Yet, the exquisite architecture of this Baltic port city's restored old town and nearby beaches have set off a tourism boom. In late August the cafes and cobblestone lanes are jammed with visitors. There is even a research center run by Intel Corporation, the semiconductor manufacturer, in town.

The European Union may be threatening the shipyard, but it comes bearing much larger gifts for Poland as a whole. From 2007 to 2013, Poland is set to receive $91.4 billion in aid from Brussels. The shipyard, which once employed about 17,000 people, now provides jobs for 3,000.

"Polish people have received a lot of lessons on the free economy," said Gdansk's mayor, Pawel Adamowicz, in an interview. "Now in a less emotional way they react to problems, for example with the Gdansk shipyard."

Across the parking lot from Intel is a Polish educational software company, Young Digital Planet, founded in 1990, at the very beginning of the transition to a market economy.

Grzegorz Wszelaczynski, a product manager and one of 400 employees at Young Digital Planet, has seen both sides of the Polish economy, growing up with a father who worked as a naval architect at the shipyard but breaking off his own studies in the field before eventually finding a high-tech job. "Technology is something which can be developed internationally," said Mr. Wszelacynski, 30. "It has no nationality."

Loyalty to the shipyard, and pride in the industry, runs deep, however. "I wouldn't be so keen on the country resigning from the traditional industry," Mr. Wszelaczynski said.

In a conference room decorated with model ships in glass cases, Andrzej Buczkowski, vice president of Stocznia Gdansk, the state-run shipbuilding company, defends the shipyard's long-term viability, pointing to a profit of about $3.5 million for the first six months of the year.

"We understand the rules and regulations in Brussels," he said. "We are demanding fairness and then transparency. We need to see how they came to the figures."

Lech Walensa, Poland's former president and Solidarity leader who led the strikes while working as an electrician at the shipyard, has spoken out strongly in favor of it. "This factory as a whole should survive no matter what kind of troubles there are," he said from his office in the historic old town here.

But even Mr. Walensa speaks of the need to modernize and improve production, going so far as to suggest that "it's not necessary to build ships. It could produce something else."