Cablegate: Spot Report: Slubice, Polish Border Town

VZCZCXRO6529
RR RUEHKW
DE RUEHWR #2654/01 3631156
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 291156Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY WARSAW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2755
INFO RUEHKW/AMCONSUL KRAKOW 1478

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 WARSAW 002654

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DRL/SEAS FOR RICKMAN
EUR/OHI FOR BECKER
DRL/AE FOR SAWCHYN

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PREL ELAB PL
SUBJECT: SPOT REPORT: SLUBICE, POLISH BORDER TOWN
STRADDLING MORE THAN THE ODER RIVER

1. (SBU) SUMMARY. Poloff went to Slubice, which sits on the
Polish-German border, to investigate labor disputes and a
longstanding issue concerning the town's Jewish cemetery.
Despite its location in a special economic zone, unemployment
hovers near 30%, higher than the surrounding province. One
local employer, Impel-Tom, fired an employee for attempting
to organize a union. The employee successfully sued the
employer, but organized labor is struggling to find a
foothold. Slubice's 600 year-old Jewish cemetery has
undergone some renovation in recent years, but much remains
to be done. City officials are keen to see the removal of
the ruins of a former motel/brothel on the site. The
Foundation for the Protection of Jewish Heritage in Poland
and the cemetery's owner, the Jewish Community of Szczecin
plan to clear rubble and improve the site once funds from a
private source are secured. END SUMMARY.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES
--------------------

2. (U) From 1250 through the end of World War II, what is
today the city of Slubice comprised the eastern section of
the German city of Frankfurt (Oder). In 1945, the communist
governments fixed the Polish-German border on the Oder River
thus creating the separate city. The Frankfurt-Slubice
connection is still strong, with a half-mile bridge across
the river as well as the Frankfurt-based Viadrina University,
which has a campus (Collegium Polonicum) in Slubice. There
is still passport control, but foot and auto traffic
constantly move across the bridge and many Germans cross the
border into Slubice to shop and eat.

LABOR SITUATION IN THE
KOSTRZYN-SLUBICE SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE
---------------------------------------

3. (U) The business climate in Slubice is mixed. Due to
location the area is somewhat of a transport hub with lots of
truck traffic and some accompanying services. But
unemployment is high: nearly 30% in the Kostrzyn-Slubice
Special Economic Zone (KSSEZ) as compared with 20% in the
entire Lubuskie Province. As it lies just 40 miles from
Berlin, Slubice promotes itself as being Berlin's "Polish
suburb," but this and the establishment of the KSSEZ have had
little effect on the local and regional economy.

4. (U) In 1997 the GOP established the KSSEZ. Firms that
invest in the zone receive real estate and employment tax
breaks. Approximately 100 firms (primarily Polish but some
German, Scandinavian, and Italian) have operations in the
KSSEZ, most of these small operations with under 50
employees. According to government statistics the KSSEZ has
created approximately 1,750 new jobs since its inception.

5. (SBU) On December 13 Poloff met Jacek Rosolowski, a worker
fired from his job as a janitor in March after he attempted
to organize a labor union at Impel-Tom, which provides
contracted cleaning and kitchen services at hospitals.
Rosolowski started work in September 2005 for the minimum
wage ($220 or 650 PLN per month). The company promised its
50 workers a pay raise in January 2006 but did not deliver,
so Rosolowski and eleven others signed a letter to form a
union. The next day he was fired without cause. He sued the
firm for unlawful termination and damages, and in October won
a settlement for $2,400 (7,000 PLN). Impel-Tom has since
dismissed without cause three more of the twelve individuals
in November who attempted to form a union.

6. (SBU) Since his dismissal, Rosolowski has become active in
the local labor movement and has organized a local chapter of
the Committee for the Protection and Defense of Oppressed
Workers (KPORP). Not a proper labor union, this small group
works on the fringes to assist workers with legal issues.
Rosolowski remains unemployed, and believes that local
employers are blacklisting. He feels no physical danger, but
many friends and former co-workers now ignore him or will not
be seen in public with him.

7. (U) The majority of manual laborers in the KSSEZ are hired
on short-term contracts and therefore not sufficiently able
to organize unions. In addition to high unemployment in the
area, the KPORP claims wages have trended steadily downward
over the last several years. There are no active labor
unions in local employers, and even the national Solidarity
union was unable to organize a local chapter at area shops in

WARSAW 00002654 002 OF 002

the German supermarket chain Lidl.

CLEAN-UP NEEDED AT 14TH CENTURY JEWISH CEMETERY
--------------------------------------------- --

8. (U) Slubice is home to a large Jewish cemetery that
existed from the year 1399 through December 1944. Three of
those at rest on the grounds were a revered rabbi/teacher and
his family from the eighteenth century. Following World War
II and the division of the city the local government treated
the cemetery as abandoned property and constructed
intersecting rural highways along two sides of the grounds.

9. (SBU) In the early 1970s the Slubice government built the
Staropolski Motel and an accompanying parking lot on the
grounds of the abandoned cemetery. The motel became a
favored site of local prostitutes. Slubice resident Edward
Fedyszyn told Poloff on December 13 that he remembers when
builders dug up the marble gravestones for resale and removed
the human remains. In 1985 the regional Public Office for
the Protection of Relics designated the area a heritage site.
They closed down the motel, cleaned, and planted trees on
much of the land with the financial support of international
Jewish organizations. In 1999 Frankfurt and Slubice jointly
dedicated and erected four memorial tablets in the former
cemetery: a twelve foot-high brick and marble memorial
tablet at the entrance and, on the other side of the plot
approximately 100 yards away, three smaller brick and marble
tablets on the former site of the revered rabbi and his
family's graves.

10. (SBU) In 2002 Rabbi B. Polatsek of Brooklyn, NY attempted
to further rehabilitate the cemetery site. The Slubice
government cooperated and transferred the land free of charge
to the Jewish Community of Szczecin (Gmina) in early 2004,
whose first act was to destroy the motel, which since its
closure in 1985 had served as an ersatz brothel, down to the
foundations. The foundation and neatly stacked piles of
bricks remain to this day. In October 2006 the County
Building Inspector declared the ruins a public hazard and
ordered their removal.

11. (SBU) Rabbi Polatsek contacted the Embassy in late
October very concerned over the lack of progress on cleaning
of the cemetery site. On December 14 Slubice Vice Mayor
Marcin Jablonski told Poloff that while he is very keen to
see the motel site cleaned up, since the land is private
property any expense is the Gmina's responsibility. Polatsek
claims to have anywhere between $20,000 and $300,000 (the
amount varies) to contribute for this project and proposes a
three-stage plan: removal of the motel ruins, the erection
of a fence, and the formation of an international committee
to oversee the maintenance of the cemetery. The Warsaw-based
Foundation for the Protection of Jewish Heritage in Poland
(FPJHP) is in contact with both Polatsek and Slubice
officials, and at this time the town has proposed plans to
work through the FPJHP. Only funds are lacking; Poloff and
the FPJHP have communicated this to Polatsek. (COMMENT:
Rabbi Polatsek's interest in forming an international
committee for this project strikes us as unnecessary. The
FPJHP has managed several successful cemetery renovation
projects throughout Poland, and the Embassy has urged Rabbi
Polatsek and Slubice to work through it to accomplish his
aims. END COMMENT)
HILLAS

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