Poles give blood rather than strike in the UK

Meanwhile, Jakub Krupa of the Polish Press Agency in London criticised the whole campaign, saying it had been blown out of proportion by the media after the Polish Express weekly published an article based on “a single comment” on a Facebook page.

Earlier this month official figures revealed the number of EU migrants working in the UK had topped two million for the first time.

The figures again underlined the scale of the task facing the Government to realise its aim of cutting net migration to the tens of thousands.

Research published past year revealed EU migrants contributed more to the UK in taxes than they received in benefits and services.

A more successful initiative was a separate campaign urging Poles to donate blood.

George Byczynski, of the British Poles Initiative, called for people to give blood instead of striking.

“Everyone has different goals when they’re donating blood”. We are blamed for every problem, for taking jobs.The strike is to show we are supporting the UK- people don’t see how important we are to the British economy.

Byczynski, who organised the blood campaign, decided there were better, non-confrontational ways to show how the Polish community benefitted society.

But many people felt a strike would do more harm than good; without the support of trade unions, workers wouldn’t have had any protection for their actions.

A blood drive meant to counter negative stereotypes about a British immigrant group has inadvertently resurfaced tensions over restrictions against gay and bisexual men donating.

Tadeusz Stenzel, chair of the Federation of Poles in Great Britain, said the strike was an “irresponsible and divisive way of presenting arguments in the immigration debate”.

It said: “Blood is universal and has no race, religion, gender or indeed political opinions”, Stenzel wrote.