EC Meeting Papers July 2018

7

Industrial action and campaigning.

Theoretically under Polish trade union legislation employers can sue unions, but this power has not been used, however, the procedures for taking lawful strike action are very lengthy and convoluted and of course have to be exercised at workplace level. This makes generalised and solidarity action illegal, so the union federations have to synchronise action in literally thousands of workplaces and they have done so on some occasions with some success. For example the teachers took simultaneous action 18 months ago in 20,000 workplaces. When a government proposal was made to increase the retirement age a huge demonstration led by the different trade union federations, some 100,000 people, a large number for a Polish demonstration, took to the streets and stopped the proposals. Three years ago the miners in Silesia, traditionally the industrial heart of Poland and most unionised area did the same. The example of the industrial relations in the state owned Polish Airlines was given. There was a tradition of victimisation against union activists, whether pilots or crew, in the company. Recently the company had switched from standard permanent contracts, to what the unions refer to as ‘garbage contracts’ where there is no specified workplace or times of work and under which workers become designated as being self-employed. There was a climate of fear in such situations preventing a united fightback. The teaching union was traditionally one of the largest, best organised and most socialist in orientation and as such was a particular thorn in the government’s side. Hence recent government reforms of education to shift costs to Local Authorities, and sometimes schools directly and shifting costs to them which cannot be met given their weak financial positions. Wages, though overall very low were increasing everywhere except in teaching. Priority campaigning within the OPZZ appeared to be to a) improve the state of labour and trade union law, b)oppose the introduction of non-standard and temporary contracts and c)support Sunday opening of shops. On this latter point it appeared that Solidarnosc and the government were seeking to restrict Sunday trading which the OPZZ saw in fact as a way of promoting the worst small shop employers. There had been a hunger strike by young doctors and related action arguing as it turned out, successfully, for a 100% pay rise and more money for the health service. It was remarked that this was not initiated by the trade unions who joined in with this late in the day. Unlike previous international study visits, we were not made aware of any particular new and pioneering strategies for growth. There was active use of social media and Facebook in particular. There was an awareness of the need to recruit the next generation, but little presented to us by way of strategies. The age profile of activists is apparently increasing in relation to the population at large. There appeared to be attempts to try and return trade unionists to schools to educate about the role of unions but there were difficulties and barriers to recruiting on University campuses where it appears the new generation of nationalists are being drawn from. Union Recruitment and growth.

It should be noted that the police are trade unionised in Poland.