Blackout threatened

Country's power workers ask for job guarantees

By Leah Bower

For Jiri Kubicek, the answer to avoiding a countrywide electricity blackout is simple.

"The only thing the government can do is meet our demands immediately," said the chairman of the Energy Workers' Labor Union. "Then we will end this."

Kubicek's union is one of three that recently announced it was ready to shut down the Czech Republic's power grids if the government doesn't start listening.

The 35,600 workers represented by the three unions, who work in the gas, electricity and coal sectors, say they fear there will be massive layoffs when the government privatizes the CEZ power company and six regional distributors. Potential foreign owners present one of biggest worries, Kubicek said.

"Germans have said that they could do [electricity] distribution with 10 percent of our employees," he said.

Labor leaders estimate 66 percent of the country's current energy workers could lose their jobs as the power sector is sold off. Government officials say these figures are exaggerated.

Though they haven't set a deadline for action by the government, labor leaders say they will continue with their strike threats until they are assured their fears will being addressed. Unions are pushing for requirements in any sale agreement that 2 to 3 percent of the privatization profits be put into a special fund for social benefits, as well as retraining of laid-off workers.

The industry is already a shadow of its former self, down to 23,000 employees from a high of 50,000 less than 15 years ago. In CEZ alone, employment has fallen from 14,000 to just over 9,000 in the past several years.

Many workers were pulled from other professions to be trained as service specialists in the electric industry, Kubicek said, and they can't return to those positions 20 or 30 years later.

"[Displaced workers] won't be able to find a place on the job market now," Kubicek said. "We're calling on the government to solve the problem because the new owner will not care about these unemployed people."

If push comes to shove, Kubicek said the unions are ready to shut down the power grid. Solidarity

Unions involved

Czech Labor Union of Northwest Energy Workers

Represents: 5,000 workers

Involves: CEZ and local distributors

Energy Workers' Trade Union

Represents: 30,000 workers

Involves: CEZ, local distributors, research centers, professional schools, engineering firms

Trade Union of Nuclear Energy Employees

Represents: 600

Involves: Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant (CEZ)

Source: Strike committee/Czech labor Union of NW Energy Workers

The move has enraged Prime Minister Milos Zeman, who told daily Czech-language newspaper Mlada fronta Dnes that he "does not negotiate with madmen." He also pointed out that the average monthly salary in the energy sector is 20,000 Kc ($500), almost 7,000 Kc higher than the national average.

Threats of strikes are fairly unusual in the country, said Randall Filer, a professor of economics at the Center for Economic Research at Charles University. Between the enduring taint of the association of unions with communism and the lack of large economic profits to tap, labor's voice has significantly less power here than it does in the West.

When Czech industrial unions have tried to flex their muscles, results have been mixed.

Railway workers threatening a strike last year were unsuccessful in their demands for higher pay. But 48 brown-coal miners who staged a sit-in strike for more than a month last spring in the Koh-i-noor mine were able to halt a plan to accelerate the mine's closure.

The country's truckers talked about launching blockades last September to protest rising fuel costs and taxes, following suit with their counterparts around Europe. They never did, but they succeeded in at least getting Zeman and other high-level officials to come to the bargaining table.

Filer said it's unlikely that the country's power will be disrupted, even if energy workers do follow through with their threatened walkout.

The government's most likely response to a potential blackout would be to bring in foreigners to run the system temporarily, he said. Plus, most power grids have intricate safety measures and can be operated for significant periods of time by experienced managers.

"If they could disrupt power service, it would be an indication of incompetent management," he said.

Leah Bower's e-mail address is lbower@praguepost.cz

http://www.praguepost.cz/busi062701c.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), June 27, 2001