03-12-2009 Karat: Dell sells Polish factory, workers previously complained about work regime

Excerpt from the GoodElectronics website:

Today, Dell announced the transfer of ownership of the Polish Dell factory in Lodz to one of the world’s biggest electronics producers, the Taiwanese giant Foxconn. Dell expects the European Commission to approve the transfer in the coming weeks and hopes that the transaction will close before the new year. About 3,000 people are employed at the Dell factory in Lodz. “From their point of view, nothing will change,” assures Rafal Branowski, Dell spokesperson, adding that Dell will simply become Foxconn’s client and purchase electronics produced in the factory. According to the Wall Street Journal, however, some 1,600 Dell employees will be transferred to Foxconn. The situation of the other 1,400 workers, contract agency workers most likely, is not yet clear.

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In June 2009, a trade union was established at the Dell factory in Lodz, Poland. The union got together to protest the Dell-imposed new working regime – from five to six working days a week. Workers complained that the work on Saturday is not paid the required overtime rate, but merely the normal week day rate. Other issues raised by the workers concerned the precarious position of contract workers, the increased production targets, the high costs of the Dell-offered kindergarten services, and the fact that the extra-mural students have to take unpaid leave to attend their bi-monthly classes, as reported by Karat Coalition, a Polish NGO. 70% of the Lodz-plant workers are women, among whom many have young children. To justify the higher production targets Dell stated that assembling had become more easy, which workers disputed. Contract workers were offered three-week contracts, and were not entitled to bonuses or vouchers.

Then, in August, Dell dismissed 400 contract agency workers, out of a total of 1’900 workers, as a measure to address decreasing orders. This measure fuelled the anger and concerns of the Lodz-workers. It was even rumoured that Dell was to terminate the rent of the factory by the end of the year. The Lodz plant workers feared Dell was contemplating the sell-out of the factory and intended reducing the number of employees to avoid having to pay severance pay.

And guess what, now the Dell plant is sold to Foxconn.