WORK COMPETITION IN THE POLISH CHEMICAL INDUSTRY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600350610-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 610
• Publication Date: October 25, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
SUBJECT Economic - Chemical industry,
Sociological - Work competition
HOW
PUBLISHED Monthly periodical
THI5 DOCUMENT CONTAINS INFORV ATIOM AFFECTING THE NATIONAL DEFENSE
OF THE UNITED STATES WITHIN THE MEANING OF ESPIONAGE ACT EO
U. S C., 31 AND SE. AS AMEMDEb. ITS TRANSMISSION OR THE REVELATION
OP ITS CONTENTS IN ANY MANNER TO AN UNAUTHORIZED PERSON IS PRO-
MISITED ST LAW REPRODUCTION OF THIS FORM 13 PROHIBITED.
SOURCE Przeglad Zwiazkowy No 4, 1950.
DATE DIST. 2S Oct 1950
NO. OF PAGES 3
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
WORK COMPETITION IN THE POLISH CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
dustries: chemical,- paper, and glass. Nov that the fat-processing.and rubber
industries have been withdrawn from the chemical industry and organized under
their own central administrations, the union covers workers in five industries:
paper, glass, rubber, fats, and chemicals, Trade union membership is drawn
from both the socialized and private sectors.
Plants included in the trade union activities are scattered throughout Po-
land, with heavy concentrations, in Slask and Dolny Slack woJewodztwos. The
personnel at these plants ranges from five to several thousand persons.
The range of commodities produced runs into thousands, from pharmaceuti-
cals to chemical fertilizers, soda, etc.
Membership in the Chemical Workers' Union has been steadily growing, as
follows:
1945
39,184
1946
73,200
1947
111,140
1948
136,642
1949
152,552
DATE OF
INFORMATION 1950
CLASSIFICATION . CONFIDENTIAL
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The union has three rungs of organization: the factory council, the in-
dustrial division, and the chief administration. Through consolidation, the
union reduced the number of its divisions from 93 to 32.
The work-competltion movement was initiated in May 1947 among planers at
the Wroclaw Cellulose and Paper Factory. During 1948 the movement expanded to
include 80 percent of the paper workers and resulted in a 30-percent improvement
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in labor product.1v ty In the 1949 interfactory competitions, the Kalety Cellu-
lose and Paper Factory won fir:+: place and the Myszkow Factory ran second. There
were also marked economies in the consumption of raw materials. For the produc-
tion of one ton of cellulose, consumption of pulpwood was reduced from 7.2 cubic
meters to 6 76 cubic meters. For the production of pulp, consumption of pulpwood
was reduced from 4,7 cubic meters to 3.69 cubic meters,. Labor productivity in-
creased from 4,28 zlotys to 5.02 zlotys per man-hour.
In the chemical industry, work competition which did not begin until April
1948, met with objections on the part of engineers and technicians. It was in-
itiated among loading and unloading teams in the fertilizer industry and the
firet records were attained by the Katowice Fertilizer Processing Plant in load-
ing superphosphate and in unloading phosphorites and apatites,
Work competition was extended to investment projects. The Moscice plant
speeded up its second Stage of reconstruction by one month, In the second half
of 1948, work competition spread to the coke ovens, calcium carbide furnaces,
grinding mills, and machine shops, Already 45 percent of the employees were
taking part in work competition; as a result, the chemical industry completed
it. 1948 plan by 4 November.. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that work compe-
tition met with serious obstacles in the chemical industry, such as productive
limitations of its apparatus, limited yield from raw materials, irregular de-
,] eery schedules for raw materials, etc.
In 1949, interplant work competition was initiated among the Moscice,
Chorzow, Boruta, Stomil, Pepege, and Gruslziadz plants, The Knurow Coke Ovens
engaged in competition with the Emma Coke Ovens, and the sulfuric acid plants
of the chemical industry completed with acid plants of the, metallurgical in=
dustry
f
Unlike mining, the chemical industry has not been able to set spectacular
new records. At the most, not-ms established for the appali%tus can be exceeded
by 3C' percent: However, the desire to set new production records was a spur
to inventiveness to improve efficiency. In 1949, 271. innovations were sug-
gested, 249 of which were approved, In 1949, 69 percent, of the chemical
workers were engaged in work competition.
In the glass industry, work competition was introduced in May 1948, when
the workers of the Zabrze Bottle Glassworks made a verbal agreement to increase
the current production by 1,6C0 bottles daily. The Siemianowice Glassworks
challenged the Polanica Glassworks to competition in the manufacture of light
bulbs for a period of 3 months. Although the Siemianowice Glassworks allowed
its competitor a handicap of 150,000 bulbs, the Siemianowice Glassworks won the
contest.. In the fourth quarter of 1948, 19 of the 36 glassworks engaged in
work competition.
The extension of work' competition programs in glassworks during 1949 eh-
abled the glass foundries to exceed prewar production norms by 25 percent.
The Sosnowiec Glassworks reduced breakage by 80 percent, others did the same
up 'co 50 percent: In 1949, about 55 percent of the glassworkers were enrolled
in work competition.
During 1950, fundamental changes in work competition were introduced when
the chief administration analyzed achievements to date and decided to extend
work competition to all aspects of production. In its present form, work com-
petition is a modified version of competition initiated in the USSR by 103 en??
torprises of Moscow Oblast and competition adopted in 1949 by the Hajduckie
Metallurgical Plants in Poland. Work competition in the new manner is a long-
term affair, covering a period of 6 months to a year.
Up'to the present, the new form of work competition has been adopted by
35 chemical plants, 38 paper-manufacturing plants, five glassworks, and one
fat-processing plant.
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CON~IDE~~~~'.
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The Chief Administration of the Chemical Workers Union organized woje-
wodztwo conferences for 18 industrial divisions to discuss and popularize the
new form of work competition. It was found that attention had been centered
on large enterprises like the State Nitrogen Compound Factories in Moacice
and Chorzow, Boruta United Dye Works in Zgierz etc,, whereas the smaller
plants had been neglected
The manpower problem varies from one location to another, In rural areas
and in smaller cities, the required manpower can be recruited from the farms.
There is greater difficulty in providing required manpower in Gorny Slask,
Wybreeze, Warsaw, Lodz, and Wroclaw The coastal area has the largest turn-
over in employment and feels labor shortages most keenly because work at the
ports offers better remuneration.
Associated with the problem of employment and wages is the matter of
working conditions and safety, This may be broken down into the following
categories, protective and work clothing, supplementary pay for work that en-
dangers health, and a practical program for improving working conditions and
safety.
Protective and work clothing has been issues since 1945 according to pre-
vailing custom. Prior to 1949, although collective labor agreements called
for specifications on work clothing, such specifications had not been worked
out either by the central industrial administrations or by the Chief Adminis-
tration of the Union. In accordance with the collective labor agreement of
1949, a table was set up for supplying protective and work clothing and per-
sonal safety equipment, defining the period of its usefulness, This table
turned out to be inadequate in practice and showed that additional items
needed to be included. Data were collected by the Chief Administration of
the Union for further development of the study.
Supplementary pay for work injurious to health was instituted in 1947..
Prior to 1949, the program had been carried out. in an arbitrary fashion. In
1949, a commission of d,ctore, chemists, and trade union workers made a study
of conditions injuriou- to health and ranked occupations in five classes ac-
cording to health hazards The supplementary pay ranges from 5 to 15 zlotys
according to the rank of the health hazard. This does not completely solve.
the problem. It will be necessary to shorten the hours of employment in
those divisions with particularly severe health hazards: It will also be-nec-
essary to grant longer vacations to workers in such divisions and to organize
a preventive medicine program at special centers under the supervision of
physicians specializing in industrial medicine,
it has been found that political indoctrination conducted on a mass
scale has given poor results. It is necessary for the management of the
union to build up its supervisory and teaching organization.
At the plenary meeting of the union it was resolved to reorganize the
work competition program, It was also resolved to make a more critical ex-
amination of the union's functionaries and organizers to prevent infiltration
by enemies of the working class. The union is well aware that it must in-
tensify its efforts, since the continued development of the chemical industry
requires a high level of performance on the part of the union organizers.
-3-
CONLPIDENTIAL
CONFIDENTlAt
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