(Coffee and cake will be available from 13:45 with the seminar starting promptly at 14:00)
Abstract: In the context of ongoing discussion on the changing nature of union power resources, this presentation will discuss selected trade union strategies adopted in Poland in the last decade with an aim of increasing their associational and (to the extent it was possible) structural power resources and, by these means, to reinforce their positions as the actors of industrial relations. The reference point for the lecture will be selected observations derived from the EC project PRECARIR and NCN-DFG project PREWORK both tackling the issue of the growth of precarious work in Poland from the perspective of workers and unionists themselves. The lecture will start from an overview of trade union situation in Poland in the context of: (a) the political-economic regime and its evolution after 1989 and, in particular, in the last decade, against the comparative background of selected other Central and Eastern European countries; (b) the labour market changes, in particular the spectacular rise of temporary Labour Code and non-Labour Code contracts; (c) the changes of workers’ attitudes towards trade unions as documented by existing surveys and authors’ own research. In the main part of the lecture, I will discuss selected innovative union practices in Poland, including trade union organizing of precarious employees, mass media campaigns, street protest (worker-citizens) actions and making use of political instruments to better regulate employment conditions of precarious workers. Again, selected examples from other CEE countries will be given as the context for the discussion of the Polish case. In concluding discussion, I will attempt to assess intended and unintended outcomes of union practices with regards to the collective situation of workers, the position of trade unions and the political impact of union strategies in the country.
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SEK3hv4AAAAJ&hl=en