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Labour Union

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: labour union
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Association of workers in a particular trade, industry, or plant, formed to obtain improvements in pay, benefits, and working conditions through collective action. The first fraternal and self-help associations of labourers appeared in Britain in the 18th century, and the era of modern labour unions began in Britain, Europe, and the U.S. in the 19th century. The movement met with hostility from employers and governments, and union organizers were regularly prosecuted. British unionism received its legal foundation in the Trade-Union Act of 1871. In the U.S. the same effect was achieved more slowly through a series of court decisions that whittled away at the use of injunctions and conspiracy laws against unions. The founding of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1886 marked the beginning of a successful, large-scale labour movement in the U.S. The unions brought together in the AFL were craft unions, which represented workers skilled in a particular craft or trade. Only a few early labour organizers argued in favour of industrial unions, which would represent all workers, skilled or unskilled, in a single industry. The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was founded by unions expelled from the AFL for attempting to organize unskilled workers, and by 1941 it had assured the success of industrial unionism by organizing the steel and automotive industries (see AFL-CIO). The use of collective bargaining to settle wages, working conditions, and disputes is standard in all noncommunist industrial countries, though union organization varies from country to country. In Britain, labour unions displayed a strong inclination to political activity that culminated in the formation of the Labour Party in 1906. In France, too, the major unions became highly politicized; the Confédération Générale du Travail (formed in 1895) was allied with the Communist Party for many years, while the Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail is more moderate politically. Japan developed a form of union organization known as enterprise unionism, which represents workers in a single plant or multiplant enterprise rather than within a craft or industry.

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Wikipedia: Labour Union (Poland)
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Labour Union
Unia Pracy
Leader Waldemar Witkowski
Founded June 1992
Headquarters ul. Nowogrodzka 4, 00-513 Warsaw
Ideology Social democracy
International affiliation Socialist International
European affiliation Party of European Socialists
European Parliament Group Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats
Official colours Red
Website
uniapracy.org.pl
Politics of Poland
Political parties
Elections
Republic of Poland

This article is part of the series:
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The Labour Union (Polish: Unia Pracy, UP) is a social democratic political party in Poland. It is a member of the Party of European Socialists, and Socialist International.

Labour Union was formed in June, 1992. It contested the 1993 parliamentary elections, obtaining 7.28% of the popular vote and had 41 representatives elected to the lower house, Sejm. In the following parliamentary elections of 1997, the UP received only 4.74% of votes, thereby falling short of the required 5% threshold for election to the Sejm. At the 2001 parliamentary elections, the UP entered into an electoral alliance with the larger left wing Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej (SLD), and managed to get 16 of its members elected to parliament. Some of those subsequently left the UP to join the newly created Socjaldemokracja Polska (SDPL), a splinter group of the SLD. In May 2004, the UP signed an alliance with SDPL, in which both parties agreed to jointly contest the following parliamentary elections under the SDPL banner, and to support Marek Borowski in his fight for the Polish presidency in 2005. At the 2005 parliamentary elections, the SDPL gained only 3.9% of the vote, which was insufficient for the alliance to achieve parliamentary representation.

In 2006, the UP joined the SLD, SDPL and Partia Demokratyczna (PD) parties to form an electoral alliance of centre and left parties, named Left and Democrats (LiD), for the upcoming local government elections. This alliance was maintained for the 2007 parliamentary elections, and LiD came in third with 13.2% of the vote, which saw 53 of its candidates elected to the Sejm. Unfortunately for UP, it was the only one of the four parties of the LiD alliance, not to have any of its candidates elected.

Timeline of Polish socialist/social democratic parties after 1986
• Polish Socialist Party (1987 - )
• Polish Social Democratic Union (1990 - 1992)
• Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland (1990 - 1999)
• Democratic-Social Movement (1991 - 1993)
• Labour Union (1992 - )
• Democratic Left Alliance (1999 - )
• Social Democratic Party of Poland (2004 - )
• Union of the Left (2004 - )

Contents

Leaders

Members of Polish Parliament (Sejm) (2001-2005)

MP, constituency

Important former members

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