Adam Mrozowicki

Worker agency and trade union renewal: the case of Poland

Contrary to predictions of continued weakness of the union movement in post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, in recent years Polish trade unions have undertaken various revitalisation attempts, including campaigns to organise unions in the private sector. Although the existing literature accounts for this internal union transformation by referring to macrosocial and institutional factors, this article suggests that the emerging potential of union renewal is linked with the new forms of union activism and worker agency. This asser tion is based on an exploratory empirical study using 45 biographical narrative interviews with company-level union representatives in Poland.The analysis reveals the existence of ‘transitional’ and ‘reinvented’ patterns of union activism. The article concludes that new unionism in Poland does not resemble an economic unionism or broad social movement unionism as suggested by other authors. On the contrary, it follows a path that combines the reinvented union ethos with market-oriented strategies.

Institutions and Strategies: Trends and Obstacles to Recruiting Workers into Trade Unions in Poland

In this article, we examine the role of institutional context, organizational structures and trade union strategies in tempering membership decline in the number of trade unions in Poland. Empirical data include membership statistics collected for NSZZ Solidarnośc and 54 affiliates of two other largest trade union confederations (OPZZ and FZZ) supplemented by semi-structured interviews with union leaders. In a decentralized collective bargaining system in Poland, a centralized trade union confederation (NSZZ Solidarnośc) can more easily shift resources to efficiently organize workers than decentralized confederations, OPZZ and FZZ, whose development is mostly driven by competing trade unions representing narrower occupational groups. In conclusion, this observation is put in a broader context of the debates about trade union renewal in Eastern Europe.

Precarious work in the retail sector in Estonia, Poland and Slovenia: trade union responses in a time of economic crisis

This article explores the different trade union responses to the growth of precarious work in the retail sector in Estonia, Poland and Slovenia in the context of the global economic crisis. The empirical research is based on interviews with trade union leaders and case studies of large multinational hypermarket chains. The analysis of sector-level union responses suggests the crisis has not deeply changed their path-dependent character. The most effective union tactics, involving political mobilization and sector-level collective bargaining aimed at halting the growth of precarious work, were observed in Slovenia’s neocorporatist system of industrial relations. By contrast, company-level collective bargaining and mobilization were more advanced in the two neoliberal systems, Estonia and Poland. In all three countries, the most important innovations were union-led campaigns aimed at increasing public awareness about precarious work.

Women’s union activism and trade union revitalization: The Polish experience:

This article discusses the role of grassroots women’s activism for trade union revitalization in the new capitalist economies in Eastern Europe by examining the case of Poland. The analysis of 23 expert interviews with trade union leaders and 48 biographical interviews with company-level women unionists in private manufacturing and in the public sector suggests that women’s efforts to reclaim control over their occupational lives create a grassroots potential to revitalize trade unions. However, these positive developments are constrained by cultural and organizational factors which limit women’s full access to decision-making bodies in the largest Polish trade union confederations.

Varieties of trade union organizing in Central and Eastern Europe: A comparison of the retail and automotive sectors

This article seeks to explain variations in trade union approaches to membership recruitment in Central and Eastern Europe, focusing on the automotive and retail sectors in Estonia, Poland, Romania and Slovenia. The analysis accounts for cross-country and sectoral differences in organizing approaches by reference to the role of institutional contexts, union organizational resources and trade unionists’ social agency.

Conflicts at Work in Poland’s New Capitalism: Worker Resistance in a Flexible Work Regime

This chapter explores the dynamics and emerging dimensions of conflicts at work in one of the new capitalist economies of Central and Eastern Europe, namely Poland. Critical labour studies in the first decade of transformation have focused upon the weakness of organized labour as the result of neo–liberal transformation and the legacies of communist and postcommunist unionism (Crowley 2004, Ost 2005, Bohle and Greskovits 2006). However, as demonstrated by a number of studies (Hardy 2009, Hardy and Kozek 2011, Meardi 2000), the general assertion of union passivity does not fully capture the reality of conflict at work in the course of capitalist neo–liberal transformation. First, it is based on the analysis of union–led, organized forms of worker resistance (such as strikes and collective disputes) and underplays other forms of conflict at work, including the various types of misbehaviour and dissent in the workplace (Collinson and Ackroyd 2006). Second, the assertion about the durability of cultural and structural factors impeding worker resistance makes it difficult to explain the emergence of new conflicts at work by the end of the 2000s. The latter involved the rapid growth of strike levels in 2007–2008 and the development of a more assertive labour unionism in the public sector and some multinational companies (Hardy and Kozek 2011, Meardi 2007a).

When does solidarity end? Transnational labour cooperation during and after the crisis – the GM/Opel case revisited

The General Motors (GM) case stands out for its transnational employee cooperation. During the crisis the ‘national turn’ of union politics seems to have eroded solidarity and mutual trust relations. In this article the authors suggest disentangling the behaviour of labour representatives and their attitudes, identities and feelings to develop a more sophisticated perspective on labour transnationalism. Concepts of sociological neo-institutionalism and empirical evidence from two automobile companies (GM/Opel and Volkswagen) in Germany, the UK and Poland are used to investigate the conditions under which transnational solidarity occurs and prevails. The authors conclude that solidarity in both companies has not come to an end and contributes to repertoires of contention in future labour conflicts.

Lean as ideology and practice: A comparative study of the impact of lean production on working life in automotive manufacturing in the United Kingdom and Poland

This article reports on research conducted at General Motors UK and Poland, BMW-UK and VW-Motor Poland. The development of a range of managerial practices at the workplace, often described as lean production techniques, is discussed. The focus is on the impact of the latter on employees’ quality of work-life. While advocates of lean, so-called leanistas, argue that the ‘right’ management cadre will allow the positive effects of lean to prevail, evidence confirming this assumption remains limited. In contrast to ‘lean ideology’, findings here highlight the deleterious effects of systems so defined on the quality of life at work and to workers’ health beyond employment.

‘The practice anticipates our reflections’ – radical unions in Poland

In the context of the debates on the future of trade unionism, this article explores the strategies, tools and tactics of two, small radical unions in Poland, the All-Poland Workers’ Trade Union Confederation of Labour and the All-Poland Trade Union Workers’ Initiative. The analysis of both cases, based on research undertaken by the authors in 2010–2016, demonstrates that, even in the unfavourable legal context, it is possible to organise workers regardless of their employment status and forms. In this respect, the exploration of the strategies and tools of radical unions helps to understand the role of grass-roots workers’ agency in provoking organisational changes within the trade union movements in increasingly difficult structural and institutional conditions.

Is a new paradigm needed? A commentary on the analysis by Sławomir Adamczyk

In this commentary, we support the core thesis of Sławomir Adamczyk that there exist ‘two trade union worlds’ within the European Trade Union Confederation, but our emphasis is somewhat different. The East–West divide can be explained both in terms of structural differences and of contrasting expectations about the role of European integration, rooted in the diverse histories and experiences of national affiliates. In the context of recurring particularistic logics which privilege national or regional interests over transnational labour solidarity, the need to create a new paradigm of trade union cooperation based on the recognition, articulation and, if possible, reconciliation of diverse workers’ interests can be legitimately seen as a major challenge to European trade union institutions.