sounds of the building hall by Cécile Liège

In 1980 the workers at the Gdansk shipyard, then called the LENIN shipyard, fought on behalf of the entire Poland. In that year the SOLIDARNOSC union was founded. Lech WALESA, electrician at the shipyard, became one of the most famous union leaders. This was the beginning of the end for the communist block.

Thirty years later the promoters are awaiting the closing down of the shipyard, in order to build a real estate projects a few hundred meters from the city center.

Poland - now member of the EEC - is one of the last European producers in the highly competitive shipbuilding sector. Through the years, many private owners have tried to hold the company, each restructurization bringing hundreds of jobless. Though, the Gdansk shipyard is slowly agonising. Of the 20,000 workers during the communist era, only 1,700 are still employed in the private company.

Half of the Gdansk population is living under the poverty level; thousands more of jobless would be another social shock to the city.

In the frontline, the workers suffer from the constant deterioration of working conditions: extremely low wages that may be paid out with a delay, dangerous working conditions, aging tools, a polluted environment, tiredness, bitterness, but also pride with regard to their profession. These are stories you can listen to at the Gdansk Shipyard STOCZNIA GDANSKA.