On 30 September, the Vice-President of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), Josef Středula, together with ETUC General Secretary Esther Lynch and the President of the Polish trade union Solidarność, Piotr Duda, held a meeting in Wieliczka, near Krakow, Poland. This included a meeting with trade unionists at the Wieliczka salt mine and at the MAN plant in Niepolomice, where over three thousand workers produce trucks.
The main motivation for the event was to familiarise the ETUC leadership with the situation of workers in Eastern Europe, who are concerned not only about the EU’s decarbonisation plans but also about developments in Ukraine. Another reason for the meeting was to seek greater integration of Solidarność into the European trade union movement. It is no secret that Polish Solidarność has a different approach in many respects from its sister organisations, especially in Western Europe and Scandinavia. This is especially true of its highly sceptical view of the European Green Deal. However, as Duda explained, it is not that Solidarność does not want a carbon-neutral economy in Poland. What they are asking for is more time for Poland, which for historical reasons has not been able to develop as dynamically as Western Europe, to reach a level that will allow a fair transition to a green economy.
There was overwhelming agreement on this position among the trade union leaders present, and the discussion then turned to concrete steps that the ETUC can take to influence the EU’s transformation efforts. Solidarność has commissioned a comprehensive analysis of the impact of the European Green Deal on Polish workers in order to influence policy makers. However, the homework of European trade unions remains to strengthen internal solidarity, as workers in different countries and economies face different situations. Finding compromises and common solutions based on the original and core motivations of workers’ organisation is undoubtedly the way forward if European trade unions are to succeed. Contributing to a move in this direction was precisely the purpose of the meeting of Polish, Czech and European trade unions in Wieliczka.
