NY Times: For Jobs, Some Germans Look to Poland

[La_Serpiente]

For Jobs, Some Germans Look to Poland

ZASIEKI, Poland - For most of the 1990's, Tassilo Schlicht, an unemployed German handyman, watched as Polish men and women crossed the Neisse River to work in and around his hometown, Forst, for wages typically three times the rate in Poland.

Last August, Mr. Schlicht, 46, ended his 12-year search for work in the former East Germany and began driving three miles a day across the same river to Zasieki, Poland, to a job. He now earns 900 euros a month ($1,150) as a cashier at a gas station serving cross-border consumers.

"Guten Tag,'' Mr. Schlicht greeted German shoppers in December at the yellow 10-pump Apexim station, where a liter of super unleaded costs 0.85 euro, 25 percent less than in Forst. "Soon we're going to be living together, and as a German, going to Poland for a job, any job, just made sense.''

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For Jobs, Some Germans Look to Poland

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