Images from Poland’s threatened shipyards

Once, they were the cradle of the fight against communism. But now, Poland's iconic shipyards—home to the Solidarity trade union that led the country's transition to democracy 20 years ago—are facing change of a different kind. After the European Commission found that Warsaw had given them illegal state aid to stay in business, the Polish government was forced to sell them off by June 2009. The Qatari investment fund Qinvest bought Gdynia and Szczecin yards on the northern Baltic coast; a Ukraine firm took Gdansk. Some 9,000 workers are expected to lose their jobs. Photographer Filip Cwik visited the three yards to record their final months in Polish hands.