Organizing employees in Central Eastern Europe: The approach of Solidarność

Abstract

Despite severe membership losses after the transformation of 1989, trade unions in Central Eastern Europe were slow to develop methods to recruit new members. This article examines how Solidarność in Poland has adopted American organizing approaches, and analyses how an emerging group of young trade union organizers and activists changed the self-understanding of the union. The article ends with a comparative discussion of the conditions which may promote the development of organizing activities in Central Eastern Europe.

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

“…certification law), and in single‐channel systems of worker participation, where trade unions are sole representatives of worker interests at the workplace. Krzywdzinski () adopted those institutionalist assumptions to explain the emergence of union organizing strategies in NSZZ Solidarność. The factors encouraging organizing activities in Poland include decentralized and conflict‐oriented collective bargaining systems, low‐bargaining coverage, difficult access to companies, high inter‐union competition, and restricted access to political parties and the political system (Krzywdzinski : 290).…”

“…Krzywdzinski () adopted those institutionalist assumptions to explain the emergence of union organizing strategies in NSZZ Solidarność. The factors encouraging organizing activities in Poland include decentralized and conflict‐oriented collective bargaining systems, low‐bargaining coverage, difficult access to companies, high inter‐union competition, and restricted access to political parties and the political system (Krzywdzinski : 290). The broader arguments about the effects of centralized bargaining and corporatist structure are consistent with this prediction: ‘unions more entrenched in the socio‐political system pay less attention to organizing, since declining membership does not represent the same immediate threat to organizational survival and has less impact, at least in the short run, on union influence on labour market and social policies’ (Baccaro et al .…”

“…Co‐operation with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), dating back to 1993, as well as later support from the British and German trade unions, allowed Solidarność to acquire know‐how on organizing (Czarzasty : 249; Gardawski : 210–11). Although trade union organizing strategies were also adopted in other Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries (Pedersini ), organizing efforts by NSZZ Solidarność in Poland occurred earlier, were more comprehensive and explicitly based on paid union organizers (Krzywdzinski ). Therefore, Poland can be considered a critical case to examine the role of trade union strategic choices in halting the decline in union membership in post‐socialist countries.…”

The Characteristic Features of Social Dialogue in the Baltics

“…The decline of memberhip was a common trend for the post-Communist states and advanced capitalist countries (Waddington 2005;Sippola 2009;Krzywdzinski 2010;Peters 2011). The globalization, the structural shifts in the economy, the raising of new forms of employeement and path-dependancy are the main explanatory factors for the decline (Kallaste, Woolfson 2009;Krzywdzinski 2010).…”

“…Industrial actions were not a part of their activities. Despite the fact that trade unions were those who initiated and assisted the transition to the market economy (in Poland as well as in the Baltic states (Krzywdzinski 2010)) and that they possessed the capacity and traditions of trade unions' work, they were considered as parts of the "old" system, not privy to the new state order. This could be a reason why the establishing of the social dialogue in the Baltic states was led by enthusiasts from the employers' side rather than by the trade unions.…”