Held hostage by Polish border control

[Torsten]

Hi,

Does anyone of you have any experience with failing complaints with EU authorities? I'm asking because on August 2 the Polish staff at the Ukrainian/Polish border checkpoint Krakovec went on strike and as a result I had to wait 10 hours in my car until I was allowed to enter Poland. I understand that the Polish border control officers have the right to strike. What I find unacceptable is that they have the right to virtually hold hundreds of people hostage for as long as they wish so I'm planning to file a complaint with the EU authorities. I've already contacted the Europe Direct Service and I look forward to their response.

Please let me know if you done something similar before.

Many thanks,
Torsten
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[Jamie (K)]

Unlike you, Torsten, I DON'T understand that the Polish border control officers have the right to strike!

They're vital public service employees, and in my country those people -- including the police, the firefighters, hospital personnel, air traffic controllers and school teachers -- do not have the legal right to go on strike. Some of them try it, but they are always risking prison or that their employers will fire them and break their strike.

What do you expect your complaint to achieve? What do you want the EU to do? Should they open the Polish border during the strikes and let EVERYONE in, including human traffickers and mafiosi? Should they pass a law allowing Torsten only to pass through the border during strikes? If the border guards are allowed to strike, then there are going to be huge delays; that's all.

[Torsten]

Hi Jamie,

What if the Polish border control decide to strike for a week and as a result EU citizens can't return to their homes? What do you expect them to do -- just sit and wait until the border is open again?
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[Jamie (K)]

My point is that border patrol offices SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO STRIKE! Not for a week, not for an hour! Some of them should be serving prison terms now, because border security is vital to national security. The EU is too tolerant of a lot of things and too intolerant of others. They won't arrest Polish border patrol officers who go on strike, but they want to arrest Polish and Slovak doctors who refuse for religious reasons to perform abortions. Everything is upside down.

[Yankee]

Hi Torsten

I'm a real cynic when it comes to bureaucrats.
You say you've already written to the EU authorities. I think it will be interesting to see what happens:

- Will you get any response from them at all?
- If yes, what sort of response you get (i.e. will it simply be an automated response, or will it be an honest-to-god letter written especially to you)?

My cynical expectation would be that you can expect to receive an automated response along the lines of "Thank you for your letter. Your concerns are important to us. Your concerns have been noted and will be handled appropriately." In other words, just a lot of meaningless blah blah blah, and your letter may well end up stored in the technological equivalent of a black hole.
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Amy
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ESL teacher, and native speaker of American English

[Daemon99]

[Yankee]

.
Yes, Daemon, and I also wanted to suggest "forgotten" and "never to be seen or found again".

I've written to the White House, for example, and I'm convinced that doing so was a complete and utter waste of time and energy (despite the fact that I received a "response").
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Amy
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ESL teacher, and native speaker of American English

[Lost_Soul]

[Daemon99]

Alex,

The phrase "select queries" looks kinda redundant to me. What other kinds of queries are there (in computer lingo, that is)? You say insert is a query but I beg to differ. I would call it a statement.

I've seen many people saying insert query, update query and delete query quite often. But what I fail to see is how an insert action can be logically seen as a query. Beats me!

Or am I missing sumthin' here?
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Non-native speaker of English
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I intend to live forever - so far, so good.

[Lost_Soul]

Well, simply put "query" is a synonym for "instruction" in the SQL terminology. When you insert data row(s) into a table, you instruct the SQL server you're making queries against to put the data into the table. It seems like every operation you do with a SQL server, you do by making queries.
By the way, have you ever worked with SQL ? (just curious)
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Alex

How much upchuck would a woodchuck upchuck if a woodchuck could upchuck ?

(a guy from Russia)

[Daemon99]

[Torsten]

Hi,

In case you are interested in the response I got from the Europe Direct Center, here is is:

Dear Mr Daerr,

We acknowledge receipt of your message. Unfortunately, due to technical problems our response to your enquiry has been seriously delayed. We apologize unreservedly for any inconvenience this may have caused to you, and confirm that steps have been taken to ensure that the problem does not recur.

In response to your enquiry, we would like to inform you that a complaint regarding the Polish border control should be submitted to the Polish authorities. You can find a link to the Polish National Public administration portal at the EUROPA server available on the following URL:
europa.eu/abc/european_countries/eu_members/poland/index_en.htm

Please scroll down to “Useful links”.

In addition, you may contact the National Ombudsman in Poland. You will find contact details at the following address:

ombudsman.europa.eu/links/en/pl.htm

We hope this information will be helpful to you.

With kind regards,

EUROPE DIRECT Contact Centre
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[NinaZara]

So basically they just directed you to the right place to file a complaint. Well, have you followed the direction?
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Try your best and damn the rest.