Szmulewicz: I am opposed to widow, grandma and 800 plus

Katarzyna Przyborska: The latest political fashion tells politicians to repeat populist slogans, criticize the Green Deal, manifest a distance to the EU, tighten military muscles at the border, reduce retirement age and give gifts. And I just heard you say publically that you gotta end up with 800 plus. Who saw it in the campaign, that kind of thing?

Piotr Szumlewicz: My run will be radically unpopular, mainly due to the fact that I have a substantive advantage over another candidates and I can present a coherent imagination of a truly strong state. I'm not changing my head on polls. late Magdalena Biejat and Adrian Zandberg announced that they would want to lower the retirement age of men. It's populist absurd! Give higher salaries, cut a week's work and lower retirement age? - It doesn't work. This is besides a capitulation in terms of ambitious targets for the activation of seniors, improving the quality of their health, activating older people with disabilities.

What are you proposing? You, union boy. “Work to the Death”?

To equalize the retirement age of women and men at 65. It is possible to introduce solutions specified as Sweden, that after exceeding a certain age we give the anticipation of a more flexible working time understood as an chance to shorten the working week while maintaining pay. Yes, it is worth shortening a week's work, adding regenerative leave, it is worth fighting overtime, junk contracts, but let people work longer and longer.

First of all, people get sick, second of all – this is mainly about women – they are delegated to care for their grandchildren or parents. That's what this early women's pension is for. And since it's earlier, it's lower.

Of course, therefore, the increase in retirement age is to be accompanied by improved food quality, improved wellness care quality, improved working conditions and high-paid, good jobs in the public sector, including social assistance, in the care sector. Słobki, good quality meals in schools and care for seniors will relieve women of household chores.

We are an ageing society. If we do not take full care of wellness improvement and professional activation, including those with disabilities, we are facing lonely old age and hungry pensions. If people are healthy longer and the work is not besides strong – they will want to work longer. Work socializes, helps keep contacts and activity in all areas of life. Saying: Get off work until you die and offering pensions to 60-year-olds are unfair.

Where do I get the money for this?

I am opposed to widow's pension, I am an opponent of grandmother's, 800 plus in the current version and all kinds of giving money to selected groups, including miners, farmers (of which any are farmers only by name) and of course the Church. All these groups get besides much money. The fact that we citizens fund priests' pensions is outrageous.

And I'm happy with 800 plus, and I'm worried that the program ends before the kids graduate. I would besides like extra tickets for students and textbooks and a tiny household card for families with 1 parent.

I believe that the rules should be universal and that public services must be put into place. Releasing is simply a bad thing. household 800+ is simply unfair, I see no reason why we should give money to rich people.

I think it is the work of all liable presidential candidate to indicate cuts, due to the fact that public services cost money. If we do not want to deepen our deficit, we must indicate cuts. We can't just leave everything the PiS gave, as Czarzasty says, and we'll throw in the another 1 that much. We don't have that kind of money. Poland spends the most of the European Union on cash benefits in household policy. More than Germany, Belgium, France. We cannot afford household 800+ without an income criterion.

But you know how this ends? The payments will be erased and it will be revealed that there is no and no money for services. I would like the other order – first services and then giving up subsidies. Children are quite a few expense and quite a few responsibility.

And that's why I'm telling you, I want you to spare us from this large expense. And of course, the point is that citizens can trust you. So, for example, the first program that is not expensive, and at 1 time it was initiated by the Platform, is simply a refund of simple school textbooks. It serves children and parents. Let's besides refund advanced school textbooks that are much more expensive. It'll show you that you can.

We know that maybe, PiS has shown you how much you can. Let him show you he can download alimony. Let it show that it hears employers who say that the migration strategy that has just been implemented does not respond to the challenges of the economy. But it is besides about the public supporting government decisions and voting in the next term. Who can support your demands?

Liberals, social democrats, downtown people. Taking people's taxation money out of order to give people without an income criterion, it is simply a circulation of money over and over again – that is what any Confederates say and are right. small progressive taxes are collected and refunded independently of the income criterion. It's not fair, it doesn't make sense. Besides, it's worth remembering that 1 gold in cash is 1 gold. On the another hand, 1 gold is given for a healthy meal, education or dentist is 5 PLN.

This is an investment. And okay, liberals like investment. But they besides like a inexpensive country, they like to lose weight on the administration. And you want to rise the wage of the budget. How do you convince them to do that?

It is up to the administration to find the strength and safety of the state.

Not from the Shield of the East?

Civil police personnel, liable for the circulation of documents, car inspection, have salaries in the minimum area. late there was a occupation announcement in which a civilian employee, operating classified data, was offered a minimum wage plus PLN 400. specified salaries are a real threat to national security.

Is that putting a soft underbelly into a hybrid war?

We request an efficient administration. If we had fulfilled the dream of Sławomir Mentzen and released half the administration, even if we had raised the wage of the another half, we would have collapsed, a disaster. There are no occupation surpluses in Poland, but alternatively vacancyes, whose scale is increasing.

Why?

First of all, due to the fact that wages are besides low. The wage needs to be radically increased and the remuneration systems harmonised. I'm a passionate supporter of collective agreements. In Poland, almost nobody knows what it is. In Western European countries, 100% of the public sector are collective agreements.

Which is?

Collective agreements are binding on the Act of Agreement between employers and employees' representatives, mainly trade unions, usually with representatives of the applicable Ministry. Collective agreements can be company and industry. They are based on the fact that working conditions and wages for full industries are set rather in detail, including, very crucial to me, equal pay for the same work. Furthermore, in the Polish Labour Code in Article 18 (3c), it is stated explicitly that for the same work the same wage must be the same, along with the additives. Unfortunately, this provision is circumvented on a massive scale.

Then what depends on the amount of authoritative salary? From the city? The head of department?

Public sector wage systems are far more arbitrary than many private companies. I mean, in the same position, in the same institution, with the same work placement, you can have a rate differing by PLN 2 000 per month, and this applies to both local social assistance homes and the State Social Insurance Institution.

Why?

This is due to the fact that there are no collective agreements that would include all employees, specified as social assistance, cultural institutions or municipal offices – each local government determines salaries at its discretion. And as far as the budget is concerned, for respective years now, we have had an indicator that trade unions argue with employers in the Social dialog Council. This argument, on the another hand, concerns not the valorisation of wages, but the increase in the wage fund. This means that if the wage fund increases by 7%, 1 will get a 12% rise and the another a 2% increase.

Another thing another presidential candidates don't really know about is the implementation of increases. In private companies, if the employer raises the wage by 10% as of January, a higher wage enters the account at the end of January. If the government in the budget bill records for 2025 even these mediocre 5% increases, which is little than expected inflation, then most budget workers know they will not get them in January, February or March.

Why?

Because the implementation of the budget law in Poland is between April and June. In short, if I have a 5 percent or 20 percent increase, as it was last year, I will get it only with a levelling since April, May or June without any interest. A country that should set an example understates standards.

What is the specificity of local governments?

A very crucial part of my run is to rise the issue of transparency. Even erstwhile in Political Criticism I wrote about itIn which I expressed my views precisely.

I am in favour of the transparency of wages and the punishment for waste of public funds and inefficiencies. In Poland, this concept barely works. If individual wastes 50 grand, fundamentally nothing big, there's no consequence. I say this in the context of local governments, due to the fact that the scale of irregularities is large there. It's not only common that micro-corruption, hiring dudes, it's inactive a large deal, and unfortunately small has changed with the change of power. I'm very sorry to say this.

Sasin and Ziobry are very impressive, stealing public money spectacular. However, in local governments, regardless of political options, this happens on a smaller scale all the time. This needs to be wiped out.

The second issue is indeed a catastrophically low wage for a large part of local staff. Local government workers are the vast majority of teachers and cultural workers, virtually all social workers, of course city officials and a very large proportion of these workers have a minimum wage, and the arbitraryity of increases is even greater than in the budgetary sphere.

To change that, we could usage a stronger Pip.

Pip and NIK. We request strong and efficient control institutions to defend offices, defend workers, including migrants, peculiarly susceptible to exploitation and slavery. It's besides about product control.

You're a Green Deal supporter. And I think you're all alone in this field.

In 2020, on a major test, the Government of Law and Justice did a survey on what farmers think of the Green Order. Only the Green Deal was not asked about, but about reducing pesticides, antibiotics and fertilizers, about all the main Green Deal entries for agriculture. And about 65% of farmers were in favour of all these solutions. simply due to the fact that these are rational solutions that will enable us to have products of better quality and healthier society, respecting the ground. These solutions are good for farmers and for society as a whole. It is besides worth recalling that according to NIK, Polish agricultural products are unfortunately among the worst in the European Union.

So after doing this study, PiS turned the front and started a disinformation experiment?

Yes, he identified the Green Deal at the end of Poland. I have large regret to Donald Tusk that he has surrendered to the Law and the Confederation in this ecological area, due to the fact that the constitutional work of public authority is to inform about the risks of natural disasters, environmental threats and to counter them.

Now the package antiGreen Deal and antiMercosur is mandatory for all. Farmers are afraid of unfair competition with countries where quality and production rules are not as strong as in Europe.

I think I'm the only candidate to support the union agreement with Mercosur. It's a very good bill for all parties. It includes very strict quality requirements for agricultural products entering the European Union and limits of these goods, peculiarly sensitive, which could disturb markets in Poland, for example. This is simply a proposal that dramatically increases trade between the European Union and Latin America, which is very crucial in the context of the global situation. We must have another outlets.

Than China and the USA?

We have China that is not commercially friendly to us, and the US that wants to introduce advanced tariffs. Moving Latin America to our side is strengthening the European Union and drawing these countries distant from Russia or China. due to the fact that if not Latin America, then who?

Supported by the largest Central parties, the Port of Communication is expected to last mainly from the increasing trade of Poland with countries outside the European continent. We request this deal.

So you're in favour of the European Union, too?

You may have different reservations, but this is the most transparent entity in the world. This deal with Mercosur is entirely available online with all the footnotes. This is an agreement that has been negotiated for more than 20 years, which is accepted by the societies and democratically elected governments of all practically European Union countries, including all Scandinavian countries.

If you were president, would butter prices go up or down?

I wouldn't have any effect on butter prices. I'm against price regulation. respective times the PiS froze energy prices, and moments later they were cheaper than the level at which they were frozen, and there was a situation that we spent public money, and later it turned out that it was the money that was thrown out, senseless.

A migration pact?

What we are doing at the border with Belarus is very questionable from the point of view of the regulation of law. But it's besides cynically ineffective. If we want to keep the control understood by Donald Tusk or Jarosław Kaczyński, we would gotta build walls around Poland and leave the European Union. We must make a comprehensive migration policy with the Union, and so adopt any version of the migration pact. We just can't do it on our own.

How many members are there of the Union alternate you're president of?

Over 12,000.

You request 100,000 signatures to run for election. If each of the 12,000 picks up their 10 members of their families, there's a chance.

As for the signatures themselves, of course I talked to all the unions about this launch, I did not want to act like Kołodziejczak, about whom people learned about entering politics from television. On the another hand, trade unions are not a party, so not everyone has to look favourably at political actions.

So I want to gain support among different groups, including environmental, feminist, atheistic, pro-immigrant, animal owners and parcel gardens, but above all in widely understood working environments.

What's your offer for gunmen and dog owners?

Part of my run is besides caring about improving the quality of life. Dogs or cats frequently improve the quality of our lives. They are our friends, there are studies that show that we are calmer thanks to them, we have less problems, better intellectual and physical health. Therefore, for pet owners, I propose 2 days of leave at least partially paid if the pet has, for example, an operation and needs care and a refund of part of the treatment of animals, including vaccination, which affects not only the animal's safety, but the full area.

Landyards are an component that should be taken into account in strategies to improve the quality of life, especially for seniors.

Nothing for entrepreneurs?

I have a proposal for employers, which is frequently referred to, only without specifics. Well, I would like to simplify the rules so that corporate accounts, companies, unions are much faster, more transparent. Unify the taxation strategy so that all types of contracts are equally taxed and stacked. I besides propose that all taxes be charged. It is simply a extremist simplification of the system, so it is in Denmark, or tax-contribution. any employers would surely support specified a solution, as would the uniform coverage and taxation of all types of contracts.

And what's interesting is that employers are besides in favour of making budgetary salaries grow faster than they are, due to the fact that they want it to be efficient, well-paid administration.

Where will you get the run money?

I don't have any money. And here is the injustice of the election committees. PiS has already announced that it will transfer 25 million to Nawrocki. I say Trzaskowski will get even more. Left and Confederacy most likely less, but besides at least a million. Meanwhile, trade unions cannot transfer funds to the campaign, and I want to respect the rules in force in all dimension. Privately, I'm not a rich man. Therefore, I will simply be conducting a fundraiser among voters.

The second goal, I understand, is to popularize your imagination of the state, a strong administration.

I want to convince voters that you can be better. That you can truly be efficient at the office, you can have social assistance, that your grandma with disabilities can get professional, warm, comprehensive care free of charge. As another parties will take at least part of my banner postulates, I will be glad of that. I want my agenda to break through.

To get more people to join the union?

Of course. I hope that this way I can handle a fewer circumstantial issues in the workplaces, in the industries, that these pathologies, which I am talking about now, will sound like the wage strategy will be improved.

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Piotr Szumlewicz (born 1976) – writer and unionist, postgraduate of sociology and philosophy, president of the Union of Trade Union Alternatives, writer of the Citizen Reset, writer of “Gazeta Wyborcza” and political criticism, author of books Atheist Essential (2010), Unholy Father (2012), Big brainwashing. (2015) and Godless. Against Religion (2021).