Established and emerging fields of workers’ struggles in the care sector: the case of Poland

This article analyses the struggles of care sector workers in recent years in Poland, mapping the activities of trade unions and initiatives undertaken by non-unionised workers in care services. It considers the institutional setting and barriers specific to Poland and analyses the constraints on industrial action in the sector by looking at different cases: nurses and midwives, early education teachers, nursery teachers and carers of persons with disabilities. All those groups have in recent years organised militant actions. Using an institutional approach and Social Reproduction Theory, the article discusses how the social understanding of care work intersects with the institutional setting during industrial action and the consequences for the workers of this intersection. It introduces the typology of established and emerging fields of workers’ struggles and a concept of ‘bargaining power penalty’ to show that disputes in the care sector are a new form of industrial dispute, featuring, over and above the tripartite worker-employer-state constellation, the relationship between caregivers and care recipients (and their families) as well as the special position of caregivers in society. Care weakens bargaining power, while at the same time it inspires new agendas of struggles.

Union Strategies of Addressing Conflicts at the National University of Lesotho

This paper discusses the strategies that are used by the unions to address industrial conflict at the National university of Lesotho (NUL). Content analysis was undertaken to understand the interviewee’s responses and the NUL policy documents. The strategies are analyzed within the policy context, pre-industrial action, industrial action and post-industrial action. The study also shows that unions at the higher education institutions consult with other unions in the sector and, where other strategies have failed, they resort to either industrial action or legal process to resolve conflicts at the workplace. The findings further show that unions employ widespread communication between their members to share new development in the negotiation process. The findings reveal that strategies which unions normally adopt at NUL are: constant consultations and joint decision making, strikes/industrial action, work to rule, negotiations, collective bargaining, taking legal process and communication of possible ideas and solutions.

After UCS: Workplace Occupation in Britain in the 1970s

This paper traces the development of this form of industrial action through the 1970s, the emergence of an alternative economic voice, ultimately almost silenced in the 1980s with the dominance of neo-liberalism, leaving a sedimental alternative which periodically reappears. We first need to consider the context for this occupation movement and the social, political and economic developments of the post-war period which facilitated this form of resistance. Then we consider the nature of ‘occupation’, the forms it takes, and what differentiates it from strikes and other manifestations of organized conflict arising from the employment of labour power under capitalism, before examining the pattern of occupation after UCS. We indicate that the movement left a sediment of ideas and practices, not just in terms of ‘occupation’ itself as a form of industrial action, but also of an alternative economy rooted in workers’ self-management and socially useful production.

The Right to Strike and Other Forms of Protest of Persons Performing Gainful Employment Under Civil Law

This article deals with the issue of extending the right to conduct a collective labour dispute to persons performing paid work under civil law contracts, after the entry into force of the Act of 5 July 2018 amending the Act on Trade Unions and Certain Other Acts (Journal of Laws 2018, item 1608). The author considers the question whether and to what extent the right to strike and to take industrial action, provided for in the Act of 23 May 1991 on Resolution of Collective Disputes (consolidated text: Journal of Laws 2020, item 123), extends to civil lawful contractors. The position is presented that the proper application of the above mentioned law to the indicated circle of work contractors cannot mean the deprivation or limitation of their right to strike and to take industrial action. The solutions implemented by the Polish legislator with regard to persons performing work outside the employment relationship are more advantageous and far-reaching in comparison with the requirements resulting from the international labour law acts binding on Poland. However, there are specific problems with applying to these persons some of the regulations included in the Act on Resolution of Collective Disputes. These problems results from the fact that the individual legal relationship between these persons and the entities employing them is based on the provisions of civil law, and not on the Labour Code.