The Functions of Polish Trade Unions Their Progression toward the Soviet Pattern

HE research material for this paper has been derived largely from | Polish trade union publications. With the material from Poland, we s are more often concerned with the evaluation of facts than with their acceptance as such. Of course, there are no data to be found in the Polish material concerning certain phases of trade union life. However, their absence can also serve as a clue for understanding what is actually going on there. It is, therefore, the author's contention that by examining the Polish trade union press, putting the facts obtained from such an examination in context, and making independent evaluations, one can arive at an objective presentation of the role that trade unions play in Poland. However, before attempting an analysis of Polish trade unions, it might be advisable to examine briefly the Soviet direction in which these unions have been moving. In Soviet Russia they can hardly be called trade unions in the traditional sense of the term. They are not autonomous organizations designed to forge workers' solidarity in their struggle for better living conditions, but rather an adjunct of the State administration whose functions and activities are harnessed to the present economic policy, that of increased production. The end result is a widespread Stakhanovite programme of unrestrained competition for higher output and higher wages, a wide differentiation of wage rates, and a system of pay based on piece work. Furthermore, the trade unions have become recruiting and training agents of labour as well as instruments of persuasion and coercion to increase workers' productivity. They do function ostensibly as a social insurance agency, but the entire system of social services, wages and conditions of labour is regulated by the Government and used as an instrument for achieving the same end namely, increased productivity. 264

Economic history · Economics · Political science · Politics · Soviet union · Labour Market and Migration · Law · Polish Historical and Cultural Studies