Poland

Poland is among the largest and most populous member states of the European Union, and has a long history of worker and trade union activism dating back to the nineteenth century. Though the country had been partitioned between Prussia, Austria-Hungrary, and Russia in the eigtheenth century, this did not prevent Polish workers from organizing, with the Trade Union of Mechanical Engineers and Metal Workers forming in 1869. By 1906 there were over 2,000 unions throughout the divided Polish territories. The Nazi invasion in 1939 suspended all trade union activity, and Poland's subsequent status as a Soviet Republic and Warsaw Pact member saw reformed unions incorporated with and beholden to the Communist leadership. Many union members were dissatisfied with this level of state control over their unions, leading to years of tension between government and workers. In 1980, frustrated workers at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk organized  „Solidarność” (Solidarity), a trade union and anti-authoritarian social movement that used civil resistance to protest Soviet governance and advance workers' rights. Under leaders such as Lech Walesa, who would become Poland's President in 1990, Solidarity played a central role in bringing about democratic legislative elections in 1989, and the eventual dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and Iron Curtain. In subsequent years, the advancement of liberal capitalist economic policies has seen a sharp decline in union membership throughout Poland; by 2010, Solidarity's membership had dropped to 90% of where it had been in 1990.