Polish labor union "Solidarnosc" is legendary. Today, however, there are only about 15 percent of working people participating in unions.
...NSZZ Solidarność (click here) grew initially from the strikes in the Gdansk shipyard in 1980 at the time of the communist government and it was registered as an independent self-governing trade union in September of the same year. After a period of illegality following the imposition of martial law in December 1981 it re-emerged as a legal organisation in 1989.4 Solidarność’s leaders were a key component in Poland’s first non-communist government in the same year and played a direct political role in the years that followed through Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność (Solidarity Election Action), which formed part of Poland’s government from 1997 to 2000. It is now once again primarily a trade union rather a political movement but still has ties to politics (see below). In 2008 it was estimated to have 680,000 members, athough the website of the ministry of labour and social policy, lists its membership at 900,000.5 The 2012 CBOS survey estimated that 5% of Polish employees were members of NSZZ Solidarność....
