Several thousand labour unionists protested in Warsaw on Thursday, calling for a higher minimum wage and better welfare benefits during demonstrations on the eve of Poland's European Union presidency, dpa reported. Officials from Solidarity said they wanted to show Europe that Poland is not a "green island" - a reference to how Poland outperformed the EU during the recent financial crisis - but a nation that faces serious problems like low wages and high unemployment among young people. Poland takes over the EU's six-month presidency on Friday. "We want in this way to show the government, but also the whole of Europe, that Poland is a country with many social inequality problems, high prices, low wages, unemployment among young people," the union said. Union members called on the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk to raise the minimum monthly wage from the current 1,380 zloty (500 dollars) to some 1,650 zloty. They also called for lowering the excise duty on fuel and increasing the number of people eligible for welfare benefits. The demonstrators marched to the parliamentary building, where they lit a pile of tires, creating a thick plume of smoke. Their route ended at Tusk's chancellery, where they delivered a petition calling for a hike in the minimum wage. Poland's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 4.4 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2011. Tusk has boasted that the country was the sole EU nation that avoided recession in 2009. But demonstrators said that GDP growth should be reflected in rising wages.
