GFTU BGCM Report 2019

Even in the public sector and education sector pay rates for identical jobs in the same village or town, let alone across the whole country are negotiated or determined at workplace level. The trade union legislation appears to enshrine the principle of divide and rule from the outset. Add to this divisive legislative foundation, presumably design to hinder the growth of trade unions, the cavernous ideological differences between Solidarnosc and socialist leaning trade unionists, was and is huge. In 1984, the OPZZ was formed. It was not until 1989 that Solidarnosc was re-leglaised when part of it took on a registered trade union form. In 1989 elections were won by an anti-communist government and a programme of what we would recognise as Thatcherite, austerity based policies was introduced. This was to lead to a wave of strikes by all of the trade union federations. In 1990 Lech Walesa became President of the country. In 1991 the Act on Trade Unions and the Act on Resolving Collective Disputes and Act on Employers’ Associations were all introduced. Like British Trade Union legislation introduced previously, solidarity action between unions is forbidden and there is a lengthy set of hoops to be jumped before strike action can be considered lawful. A national Social Dialogue Council composed of government and employers and union federations with over 300,000 members in their unions’membership was established. Three trade union organisations are represented within this: Solidarnosc, OPZZ, and another Federation the FZZ formed in 2002. To complicate the situation further there are also other trade union federations with less than 300,000 members who are not part of the nationally enshrined industrial relations framework but which are nevertheless active in workplaces and operating as bona fide trade unions. To even further complicate matters negotiations in enterprises can be carried out by works councils and European Works Councils. Union developments were of course very much related to socialist and labour related parties in Polish history. In 1892 the Polish Socialist Party (PSP) was founded, followed by the Social Democraqcy of Poland and Lithuania party (SDKPiL) in 1900, then the Communist Party of Poland KPP) in 1918 and the Christian Democratic Party (PCDP) in 1919 and the National Party in 1928. After the Second World War, the Polish United Workers Party (PZPR) was created out of the previous Communist Party (PPS) and Polish Workers’ Party, (PPR). This became the governing party until its dissolution in 1990 and transformation into the Social Democratic Party of the Polish republic (SdPR) in 1990. A range of new parties began to emerge of a more right wing persuasion including the current ruling party the Law and Justice Party. The closest British equivalent to this party may be UKIP. It was formed in 2001. Solidarnosc Electoral Action existed until 2001. Today Solidarnosc supports the right wing Law and Justice Party which has placed key Solidarnosc supporters in

positions of government and administration. From one perspective you may say that the long term historic vision that many British trade unionists warned about in 1980 when Solidarnosc emerged, to break up the union movement and any semblance of socialism in Poland, has come about. The range of new right wing parties in power and popularity led to the creating in 1991 of the Democratic Left Alliance which was established as an electoral coalition and then in 1999 was transformed into a new political party. When the political upheaval and transformation took place in Poland in 1989/90 the OPZZ was very engaged with political developments and of the first new tranche of 460 MPs at that time 78 were from the trade unions. The SLD was in power for a decade but became increasingly neoliberal in it policies and some progressive MPs withdrew from it and it lost power. A more populist, nationalistic government and parties took its place and the OPZZ withdrew from the political scene. Two years ago the OPZZ tried to resurrect political influence by finding compromises and alliances between seven or eight left wing parties. These attempts failed and several colleagues said to us that it was now safest for the trade unions to keep their distance from the political parties. It is in effect one of the strongest voices of opposition to the current government. Labour market The current labour market was described to us as an ‘employee’s market’ in that unemployment is currently low (5-6%). This low level of unemployment follows a period of extremely high unemployment following Poland’s 2004 entry into the European Union. It also has to be seen in the context of mass migration out of Poland, (some 2 million of its workers including many in high skill areas of work) and mass immigration into Poland, (some 2 million Ukranian workers for example). A partial brain drain has been accompanied by a partial influx of unskilled workers. While some speakers believed that the period of ‘trash contracts’ was behind them, and that there was no equivalent of the current British plague of zero hours contracts, it was clear that there were many other pressures such as endemic low pay and bogus self-employment, fee for task contracts and de regulated labour abuses that indicated that although unemployment was low in a period of diminished union power in the workplace high levels of exploitation still existed. The view was expressed by one colleague that the new foreign capital in the country was from companies that were better employers that Polish ones, who were described as ‘brutal.’The current Polish government is inclined more towards US than EU capital. They are currently trying to transform Poland into a special economic zone with reduced taxes and incentive for overseas capital investment.

International Work | Page 39