Law that exists only on paper

The right to strike is a fundamental democratic right and the only real tool workers have to defend themselves against attacks from governments and big business.

However, as the experience of trade unions shows, in Poland the right to strike exists only on paper. We are still subject to restrictions that general Jaruzelski¹ introduced during martial law to prevent strikes and break ‘Solidarity’ in the 1980s². The new, post-socialist authorities were only too happy to uphold these restrictions when they introduced the ‘new’ Act on the Resolution of Collective Disputes in 1991.

This Act remains in force to this day and continues to prevent the majority of workers in our country from striking. The restrictions dating from martial law are now even more effective at blocking strikes, as they are completely out of step with the realities of the modern labour market. Mediation³ is a procedural sham exploited by employers to intimidate the workforce, unlawfully dismiss trade union activists and flood them with absurd lawsuits. A strike vote⁴ valid only with at least 50 percent quota is not democracy, but a sledgehammer against strikes – if the same requirements applied to the country’s authorities, half of the governments of the Third Republic would be illegal. Successive governments wipe their mouths with the myth of ‘Solidarity’, but in reality they fear united workers more than they fear a dictatorship.

As a result, we have one of the worst labour markets in the whole of Europe:

• Low wages
• Compulsory overtime
• A flood of „junk” contracts⁵
• Anti-trade union law firms instead of dialogue
• Shockingly low level of unionisation
• One of the longest working weeks
• Rampant breaches of labour law
• Labour court cases that drag on for years

Dialogue with employers is either very unequal or impossible. It has become an empty platitude behind which management hides in order to crush any sign of worker resistance by any means available and to repress anyone who dares to speak out. A strike, by exerting economic pressure on the employer, is the only tool capable of forcing companies to negotiate.

Without the right to strike, we as workers are deprived of a fundamental tool in the fight for our rights, for good jobs and a decent life.

What are we fighting for?

We’ve had enough. We want workers’ rights befitting ‘world’s twentieth-largest economy’. In 2025, together with numerous trade unions, tenants’ associations and civil society organisations, we formed the Coordination of Solidarity and Struggle (KSW) to fight together for our dignity, justice and true democracy – one that includes workers, not just union officials. Since April 2026, we have been vocally demanding changes to the law governing strikes.

In the spring of 2026, we drew up a set of joint demands:

• Abolish the requirement for a strike referendum
• Separate the strike from the collective bargaining process⁶
• Right to strike for public sector workers
• Freedom to strike without reprisals
• Freedom to organise political strikes!

Ballot Initiative Committee

In September 2026, the ‘No More Strike Bans – Let’s Restore the Freedom to Strike’ Ballot Initiative Committee⁷ was formed. We have begun collecting signatures in support of the Committee, because the legislative amendment it has proposed meets all of our demands. The group supporting the Committee’s initiative now extends well beyond the KSW: more trade unions, civil society organisations and individuals not affiliated with any organisation are joining it.

If we want to be treated with respect, we need legal reform and a strong labour movement capable of defending itself against attacks from governments and business leaders. History has already shown that no politician will guarantee us the right to strike out of their own good will.

We must create the pressure ourselves so that those in power are forced to lift the restrictions on the strike. No one will do it for us.

1. Wojciech Jaruzelski was a prominent politician in the Polish People’s Republic and occupied the highest posts in the country, including 1st Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party. On the night of 12–13 December 1981, he became head of the Military Council of National Salvation, which imposed martial law (1981–1983) and exercised de facto power in Poland.
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2. The martial law period was a state of emergency that was imposed throughout the entire Polish People’s Republic. During this period, a total of thousands of activists associated with the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union ‘Solidarity’ were interned.
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3. ‘Mediation’ is the fourth step in an eight-step collective bargaining process preceding a strike.
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4. ‘Strike vote’ is the sixth step in that same bargaining process. A strike may be called if at least half of the employees at the workplace take part, and a simple majority of them vote in favour of calling it. In the case of a multi-workplace strike, the consent of the majority of voting employees at each of the workplaces to be affected by the strike is required, provided that at least half of the employees at each of these workplaces take part in the vote.
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5. So-called ‘junk contracts’ are typically used by employers to circumvent labour law provisions and reduce employment costs. For employees, a junk contract results in the loss of certain benefits provided under a regular employment contract.
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6. Currently, strike is a last resort tool that can only come after an eight-step collective bargaining process specifically designed to exhaust and demobilize the workforce. ↩︎
7. Establishing a Legislative Initiative Committee enables a group of citizens to submit a legislative initiative to parliament. ↩︎