(SANITIZED)THE 'PERMANENT CRISIS' IN THE POLISH CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY/ ORGANIZATION/ WAGE SYSTEM/TYPE OF LABOR(SANITIZED)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000500120124-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 21, 2013
• Sequence Number: 124
• Publication Date: August 14, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/03/21 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000500120124-8
U.S. Officials Only
C ONFIDENTUL
SECURITY INFORMATION
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
TMI~ [0CW1[YT [0?T?I~t ~UO[r?T~or ?n [en r? i?[ ??r, ono o[r[~r[
tr Tx[ YU rW [T?rt[. ?rtsir Tr[r[ufie[ or rnl[ u. HcriOnf of
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
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Is
DATE DISTR. Aug 1953
NO. OF PAGES 4
NO. OF ENCLS.
SUPP. TO
RFPnPT Nun
Permanent "Crisis" in the Construction Industry
The Polish construction ~p;dustry is in a state of permanent crisis--for seer,:
main reasons :
(a) Irrational organization and bad distribution.
(b) The jobs of managers and foremen have been given tc unqualified pereone
chosen for political, not professional reasons.
(c) The manual workers do not try to do an honest job; they don't think
the quality of their work. Paid on a piecework basis, they th _:,;t onlt
of quantity--how to increase a modest income. Every three months the nor-i,
are increa::-:1. This means more work to earn the same wage.
U.S. Officials Only
C ONFID.l;PNTIAL
SECURITY INFORMATION
L81-UTION b .STATE IAR~~ NAVY AIR FUI ILDRR ^V - I 1
This report it for the use within the USA of the Intelligence components of the Depart eats or
Agencies Indicated above. It. Is not to be transmitted overseas withoat the concurrence of the
originating of ice through the Assistant Director of the,Ofilee of Collection aml Dissemination, CIA.
INFORMATION REPORT
In tho Polish Conetruc on Indust The "Permanent Crisis
8.,r'l'/Sa1/ [I-un.r '.r r_,.,,. f Organization/ Wage
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U~ OFi ICIAIj ONLY
C UJ1FIDENTI.AL
SECURITY INFONMAT1ON
(d) Inadequate living conditions which result in a great turnover of the skilled,
ox better workers. A manual worker in the construction industry has no
'work order' (nakaz pracy). This means he may leave his job on 14 days'
notice. Engineers and technical personnel, however, are under the law of
P1 OF kale. This means they may not give notice without special per-
The on.
housing conditions for state construction workers are very bad; so
is their food. The various enterprises build hostels for their workers
as they move from construction site to construction site. The hostels
are primitive barracks. According to the Trade Unions General Agreement
every worker is entitled to 12 sq meters of living space. This agree-
ment is never observed, and the ~.ostels are overcrowded. Although the
hostels are meant for transients, a worker may find himself living in
one a year or more because the construction plans are never fulfilled
on time. The hostels have no canteens. The workers must eat in restaurants.
If a large project is underway in a small towns real shortages develop.
This happened in Zydowce in 1952. The restaurants could cater to 50 addit-
ional persons at the most. Those who came to dinner at 5 pat got it; those
who came later went without. After 3 lna the shops and bakeries had no
bread. The workers had to bring their own lunch--bread and lard. Workers
recruited from rural districts are better nourished because they get food
parcels from their families.
:hate Organization
"Plans for the construction industry are drawn up with more 'emphasis on finances
. than on actual conditions. The Panatwova Sami.e"a Planowania Goa odarcze o /The
National Economic Planning Commission gives out yearly construction plans
to the Ministeratwo Budownictwa PrzemyslowL;,o I Mies7kaniowugo Z1e+tttntrv of Industrial
an_d Hoti}eing Constructio7which in turn gives orders to the individual; n neasenie Bu rnrn(et %
Construction Unions e i to oul~L... ..cr wtu uuL. . 6, X410 van auuu
uuu.
downictwa are dependent on the various government departments for whom 1110 yerformll
commissions.
Wroclaw Construction Department r. Fran 3.94a: to 1951 T -- ked for the Wroclawakie Ziednoczenie Budownictwa / Wroclaw
Construction Union-J which belonged at first to the De teent -n ctwa Przom-
alovego and was then transferred to the Ministerstvo Budownictwa - ze s owe o.
The central office was at Ulica Swierczewskiego 13, Wroclaw. The enterprise had
a monopoly, on all industrial construction in Lower Silesia. During the period
1948-51 itlwas building factories and workers' housing. It employed about 200
persona on: the office staff and about 5,000 work.- in the field. It had four
sections (zarzady): Zarzad Budowlan, 1; 2; 3 'for electrical work); and
Zarzr.d Budowli Instalacyjnych 4..
5, "Lower Silesia had no private building enterprises during that period. 3=11 enter-
priser which did not employ more than 10 workers ears permitted, but they could
only undertake current repairs. Eventually the authorities began to liquidate oven
these small enterprises.
"The war damage in Lower Silesia has been removed and buildings have been reconstructed
to a limited degree. Official 'representation' buildings had priority.
Workers' barracks came next. During the 1948.51 period only four or five large
workers' apartment houses were being built in Wroclaw. Residential houaoa came third,
Only a small number of private homes have been rebuilt. During the German occupation
the city of Wroclaw had 300,000 inhabitants. It now her about 250,000. The shortage
of :flats in terrific. People are ready to pay 5,000 z] in bribes for s, two-three
roars flat.' To got an assignment to a flat it is necessary to bribe the officials in
the city's ',real estate management.
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r
e an zyzatka. In My 1951 the building tempo suddenly slackenel because
the Soviet authorities discovered that the uranium? mines on the Czech
side of the border were much more profitable..
Poznan Construction Department
4c containing eight to le -it-room flats) for the uranium mines at Jelenia
Gora. These mines are on the railroad line between' Jelenia Gore, and Karpacz,
at Kowal A K
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7. the J~lenio orskle z ednoczenie Budownictwa Mie aloe&o LJelenia Gora
Musing Onstrv.ction Union construction of about ten workers' multiple
houses (a h
fit;; OFFIC:. Ara ONLY
C ONTFI DENTIAL
SECURTT7 INFORMATION
nstaacv.i Przemyslowych LPo:nan Ur-- of Industrial Ins :a. a
Wage System and Abuses
9. "Technical (construction personnel (icremen and engineers) earn basic salaries
s rectory d been starred by the Germans. It was operating in three shifts,
producing exclusively for expo t. Its technical a ,and machines had been
imported from Germany. on construction at the
fishing bane in Swinou roue,
"Simple manual construction workers belong to various wage 'categories dependent
on the type of work they do and are paid by the piecework system. They receive no
premia. Group No. 3 "as the lowest; paying a base wage of 1,86 z] per hour; Group
No 5 earned 2.6]. zl per hour; Group Ile 7 earned 2.93 zl per hour. To do his
quota of piecework and achieve the plan a worker mast usually work 10 hours a day.
"In evolving the plans and quotas, one bui.lft1r..g h:o?~r in industrial conatruction has
hi
h
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system explains the general cheating that gees on in every Zjednoczenic when statistics
and reports are prepared. It explains the quick? careless work that has led to shoddy 50X1 -H U M
constructions. It may be said without exaggeration that 70% 'of the state construction
work has been inferior, In September 1952, therefore, Regulation (okolnik) 123 appeared.
This makes the technical and administrative per.scnnel responsible for Mw-,~Dality of
work 1 ,^v ?~~rntte or accept from tneir workers and makes the technical foremen personally
and ?inanoialiy responsible or the work delivered. If larwe dammuras are di
co
- g
er value than one building hour in dwelling construction. One building hour
on an industrial construction was ca].culs seg. ac .3' zloty,
"The technical staff and foremen of a project. are responsible for the fulfillment
of a plan; if it is not fulfilled they earn only their r.,as1c'wagc--no pr=la This
This regulation has
and their incomes have diminished with the slower
13.
-- -- - r-`-??-2???????+???r ??,,.., 1.. ..+.~ s.u.cLU aAaLJG9 w nViY y WYY1AGLL
with the new law of personal responsibility has turned. the profession of a construction
technician foreman or engineer into a dangerous profession. For example, now Zjednoczenie
was established in Lublin in 1951 to -build factories and airports. As the responsible
personnel were afraid of getting into trouble becaaaa of careless work, the tempo was
slow; after six months they had spent 10 million z) more than the plan permitted. More
than 10 mon ware arrested.
made technical personnel
work tempo.
more carerul- 50X1-HUM
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4.
lt'. "Mcre contusion -)ccurs because of the shortage of building materials and especially
of such equipment as lif?:.s, concrete mixers (betoniarki), furnaces ( zerseze)
and concrete. There are 'frequent changes in construction priorities. orace,
in the winter 1952-53 the Ministry of Mines (Nisnisteeratwo Prz slu We lor~~eggo) be-
came sudd,nly privileged., The work for other gover.1ment depar n o go pnehe1.into
the background--more planning chaos.
15. "As in all Pollak enterprises, the construction Zjednoczenia dust participate in
socialist competitions. The Poznan ZjednoczPnie competes, for example, rith the
Wroclaw. All aorta of slogans are used, es!
'Diminish the output of rejects'----'Zmniejazyc brakorobstwo'
'Reduce accidents 50%
'Reduce empty transports'---.'Pus', ch bib ow w trans orcie'
The slogans and competitions are voted at as meetings within an enterprise. The
Party and Trade 8nion representatives get some trusted worker to move the resolution,
Everybody forgets about itl,until the end of the competition is near. Thep the
construction enterprise tartsworking hastily on graphs and statistics, cheats as
much as possible, and sends the resulto to its central office. There the report is
, gain corrected. By the time it reaches the central construction bureau the cheating
aacia ante) has attained astronomical proportions. Such proaedares have several
times provoked criticism from higher Party authorities. 4tilary Mine [a deputy mIsIsteiJ
has spoken of the 'differercea between reports and the tactual execution c: the real plsma,
L. "Safety is poor in the entire construction industry. Accidents occur much more fregwa4&7
than prior to World War 11. The scaffoldings and barriers are erected too rapidly MA
carelessly.
ae of Labor
17. boot called construction workers today are racy lack a good pre-World
War II trasnft,.. education and vocational training has been too hasty. The un-
cxilled workers (ally pomocnicze) are drawn mostly from the villages, as wages in the
construction industry are a little better than those in most other branches of light
Industry ( ze al lekki). Most construction workers are aged 22-24, but they range
Im or v.s from Soviet Zone of Germany
19. `The bulk of the heating installations (urzadzenia nagrzewcze) for the projects
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