EC Meeting Papers July 2018

4

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. 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). 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 axpressed 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. National Collective bargaining, as in many of the recent EU accession states and in many industrial countries like Britain, Italy, France has been substantially eroded. It barely exists in Poland, and only the Teachers’ Union was cited as retaining a system similar to collective bargaining. Pay negotiations take place at employer/plant/enterprise level. Union federations back this up with training and support and research. They do not directly negotiate. This debilitates the whole movement, particularly in the context of the employment structure. Following the transformations in the country in 1989 industry and the public sector was severely hit. The metalworkers’ union reported that in 1990 they had 200,000 members in 500 factories, in 2018 they have 20,000 members in 200 companies. In the previous socialist system they had over 80% density and collective bargaining, now they have 15% density. The situation is further weakened by the proliferation of very small employers throughout the economy. There are only 2,000 employing organisations in Poland with over 200 employees. A partial brain drain has been accompanied by a partial influx of unskilled workers. Collective Bargaining Labour market