Industrial action in 2003

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According to official figures published in 2004, there were 24 strikes in Poland in 2003, up from only one in 2002. The total number of protest actions - including pickets, demonstrations, road-blocks etc - also increased, by nearly 50%. A notable feature of 2003 was that strikes began to break out at newly established private businesses.

According to data collected by the Ministry of the Economy, Labour, and Social Policy (Ministerstwo Gospodarki, Pracy i Polityki Społecznej, MGPiPS), there were 966 work-related 'protest actions' in 2003, a 48% increase on 2002 (when there were 651 protests). 'Protest actions' include all types of strike (strikes proper as well as warning strikes, solidarity strikes, sit-ins etc) as well as demonstrations, marches, picketing, road-blocks, occupation of buildings etc. Of the various types of protest actions, demonstrations (18% of all protests) and picketing/blockading of roads (15%) were resorted to most frequently in 2003, while strikes proper accounted for only a small percentage of the protests.

According to data from the Central Statistical Office (Główny Urząd Statystyczny, GUS), there were 24 strikes in 2003, up from a single strike in 2002 (PL0307103N). The 2003 strikes involved a total of 3,000 employees - 18.5% of the combined workforce of the enterprises and institutions in which these strikes took place. The strike participation figures for employees performing manual/physical labour was broadly similar to the overall picture, with only a fifth of manual workers joining strikes held at their employing establishment. Commentators suggest that this might be taken as suggesting a waning of the working class militancy displayed in major protests in 1980-1 and later years.

Overall, 52,400 working hours were lost through strikes in 2003, an average of 17 hours per strike participant. The longest strike, held in a comparatively small garment business, went on for 20 days. Of the 24 strikes held in 2003, 15 were in industry, seven in services and two in transport.

The type of protest most frequently seen in 2003 involved disgruntled farmers blockading roads, ranging from access routes to the local granary to national highways. Most of these events were concentrated in the first months of 2003, particularly in February. On some days, the Wielkopolska region of western Poland was affected by 50 road-blocks at once. Many were staged, perhaps surprisingly, by relatively prosperous farmers, who own farms that, while not necessarily large, are well-equipped and turn a profit. This group was most worried at the prospect of excessive liberalisation of agricultural policy and feared the results of Poland’s imminent accession to the European Union.

Protests in the mining and metalworking industries simmered throughout 2003. Towards the end of summer, protests broke out in the healthcare sector over planned changes to the legal status of the organisational units of the national health system. In November 2003, the Independent and Self-Governing Trade Union Solidarity (Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy Solidarność, NSZZ Solidarność) organised what it referred to as 'nationwide days of protest against the antisocial policies of the government', which attracted some 60,000 participants - a respectable number by Polish standards, although the organisers had apparently hoped for more.

Main protests

According to a report prepared by the Ministry of the Economy, Labour, and Social Policy (Informacja na temat akcji strajkowych w Polsce w roku 2003, Piotr Bogusz), in terms of sectors and groups, the largest protest actions in 2003 were held in agriculture, mining and healthcare, and by taxi drivers and unemployed people.

• Agriculture. Protests were organised by the Self-Defence (Samoobrona) movement, the Independent and Self-Governing Trade Union Solidarity of Individual Farmers (Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy Rolników Indywidualnych Solidarność, NSZZ Solidarność RI), the Polish People’s Party (Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe, PSL) and other organisations (PL0407104F). The most notable demands included calls for the state to buy up all agricultural produce in order to intervene in a difficult market, and to hinder the establishment of industrial-scale pig farms by foreign companies. There was also a series of demands relating to Poland’s EU accession, most particularly with respect to direct subsidies.

• Mining. In August 2003, Kompania Węglowa (KW), one of the holding companies established to administer Poland's coal mines, took the decision to halt extraction at four of its mines, despite strikes and protests by all the main trade union organisations represented (PL0309105N). These various protests were orchestrated by the national hard coal section of NSZZ Solidarność with the assistance of some smaller unions, which had set up a convened a protest coordination body in December 2002. They demanded that extraction be continued at those mines which still have usable seams. In September 2003, 10,000 miners held a protest march in Warsaw, which culminated with the smashing of windows at the Ministry of the Economy, Labour, and Social Policy building (PL0310103F).

• Healthcare. In mid-2003, the healthcare section of NSZZ Solidarność and the National Labour Union of Nurses and Midwives (Ogólnopolski Związek Zawodowy Pielęgniarek i Położnych, OZZPIP) staged a protest against the proposed transformation of local healthcare entities into public companies (PL0311102N). Doctors in some regions protested against the insufficient financing of their contracts.

• Taxi drivers. A Nationwide Protest Committee of Taxi Drivers and Transport Workers (Ogólnopolski Komitet Protestacyjny Taksówkarzy i Transportowców) organised, in October and November 2003, large protests in three major cities. They expressed their opposition to a new obligation to instal tax-certified cash registers in their vehicles (PL0311104N).

• Unemployed people. In mid-2003, the Movement for Defence of the Unemployed (Ruch Obrony Bezrobotnych) staged a 'star march' on Warsaw, with columns of protesters converging on the capital from different directions. The unemployed people were demanding that their representatives take part in sessions of the Tripartite Commission for Social and Economic Affairs (Komisja Trójstronna do Spraw Społeczno-Gospodarczych) (PL0210106F). They also called for the creation of a crisis team to tackle unemployment issues and for amendments to the recently adopted Act regarding employment and counteraction of unemployment (PL0405105F).

Apart from these wider protests, there were notable disputes at several specific employers in 2003 (PL0401104F). A prominent example was Polish National Railways (Polskie Koleje Państwowe, PKP), which was swept by four waves of protests. The first of these was in January-March, and the principal demands were abandonment of plans to shut down 6,000 kilometres of local railway lines, extension of subsidies for regional rail transport, and establishment of a 'welfare net' for redundant PKP personnel. The second wave of protests came in July 2003 (PL0308105F), with the earlier demands augmented by calls to desist from privatising profitable transport companies. The third wave of protests, occurring in November (PL0311102N), centred on specific financial demands; the protesters demanded that significant amounts of money within the national budget be earmarked for regional passenger transport and for upkeep of rail infrastructure. The final wave of protests was about an alleged failure on the part of PKP management to honour previous undertakings, and claims of breaches of employees' rights. Most of the financial demands made by PKP workers were met.

There was also a well-publicised strike at a railway rolling stock factory in Ostrów Wielkopolski (Fabryka Wagonów) whose new, post-privatisation owner had allegedly failed to meet its commitments, did not pay out wages on time, and pushed the facility into liquidation (PL0309104N). There were strikes at two metalworking plants and at the Tonsil electronics factory in Września. A high-profile strike took place at the privately owned garments factory Hetman, in Elbląg, whose owner paid its employees several months late and sacked some who had decided to establish a trade union. According to the Ministry of the Economy, Labour, and Social Policy, strikes at private enterprises in 2003 generally did not focus on employment conditions or on the level of pay - the most common grievance underlying them were wage payment arrears, in some cases stretching back for many months.

Perceptions of the strikes

A representative survey carried out by CBOS in May 2003, commissioned by the Warsaw School of Economics (Szkoła Główna Handlowa, SGH), included a number of questions about strikes (Świadomość ekonomiczna Polaków i jej korelaty). The responses fit into the general pattern found in previous polls. A significant proportion of respondents (80%) believed that local strikes were either certain or highly likely to break out, and 57% believed that a general strike in Poland was a real possibility. These attitudes would suggest a continuing, or perhaps even increasing, frustration and disenchantment among the Polish population. Yet when the pollsters inquired about effective forms of safeguarding employees' interests and suggested strikes as one of the possible answers, only 5% of the respondents pointed to strikes as an effective instrument, while 52% declared that there is no effective means of defending employees' interests. This particular finding may go some way towards explaining the modest turn-out at strikes and other protests.

Commentary

Poland experienced a major intensification of industrial disputes and protests during the early 1990s. Since then, the incidence of protest actions, and especially of strikes, has been significantly smaller, and such strikes as do break out have usually been in state-owned enterprises. The incidence of strikes and other protest actions continues to be rather low. While Italian, Spanish, or French unions have proven themselves capable of rallying hundreds of thousands of employees, a Polish union considers itself lucky if it obtains a five-digit participation figure. One of the causes of this state of affairs is the high unemployment in Poland, which exceeded a rate of 18% in 2003. However, in spite of the relatively complacent mood prevailing among Polish employees, strikes have now begun to break out at newly established private enterprises (as opposed to state-owned giants such as the national railways or at former state companies now privatised). Only a few years ago, Poland’s private sector was virtually strike-free. These stirrings among private sector employees are caused by increasing employee exploitation by the owners of medium-sized enterprises and by the practice of delayed wage payments, a problem with wide social repercussions. The strikes suggest that employees are unwilling to accept a situation where they finance the operations of their employer and receive nothing in return. (Juliusz Gardawski, Institute of Public Affairs [Instytut Spraw Publicznych, ISP] and Warsaw School of Economics [Szkoła Główna Handlowa, SGH])