The trade union that helped to bring about the fall of communism in Poland is to campaign to recruit Polish workers into a British union.
The familiar red logo of Solidarnosc (Solidarity) created in the Gdansk shipyards will greet Polish workers arriving in Britain as part of a recruitment drive by the GMB. The Polish union will also use its website to advise workers leaving Poland of their rights in Britain and to urge them to join the GMB, which, like Solidarnosc, is a general union.

 
 
The GMB will step up a recruitment drive at main points of entry into Britain such as ports and Victoria coach station in London. With Solidarnosc, it will give leaflets to Polish workers telling them how to get help in the UK and outlining their legal rights.

Kathleen Walker-Shaw, of the GMB’s Brussels office, said: “We don’t expect them to sign up then and there, but it will be something for them to think about when they have arrived in a place that is totally new.”

The GMB already has a branch in Southampton devoted to migrant workers, the majority of whom are Polish. It is also using a learning programme to teach English as a second language to Polish workers. Union members are allowed to undertake a certain amount of learning while at work and union programmes are usually free.

Solidarnosc, which became the most famous union in the world during its fight for recognition in Poland, says that it wants workers to be treated as well as possible when they leave the country. However, it will also be hoping for a knock-on effect on its membership when Poles who join the GMB return to live in Poland. Solidarnosc’s membership has fallen from a high of 9.5 million in 1981 to 1.2 million.

The GMB and Solidarnosc have been sharing information for the past few months as the British union has seen manufacturing jobs go to Eastern Europe and the Polish union has watched Eastern European workers move to Britain.

Paul Kenny, the GMB’s general secretary, said: “Both the GMB and Solidarnosc recognise the need to ensure that labour standards in the UK are not undermined and that migrant workers are not exploited, as has happened all over the UK to date. This is the start of wider European co-operation to deal with exploitation.”

Wojciech Gumulka, a spokesman for Solidarnosc, said: “If we cannot create enough jobs for our workers at home, we must help those who go to Britain to work. Solidarnosc wants protection for Poles who are lured to Britain by promises of high wages and are later pressured to work for less. The terms for these Polish workers end up being very different to those they are offered before leaving.”

As well as targeting points of entry for Polish workers into Britain, the GMB will campaign in industries in which the use of migrant workers is high, such as food-processing, construction and hospitality.

Migrant workers are being courted increasingly by unions. The T&G is mounting a campaign to improve the pay and conditions of cleaners, many of whom are migrants. It has targeted banks and investment houses to highlight the disparity between the pay of their highest and lowest earners and has also campaigned at the House of Commons.

Lloyds TSB, the bank, is to offer specialist services for Polish customers at some of its branches. They will include Polish-speaking staff, as well as signs, brochures and account-opening forms in Polish.

Union men

Solidarnosc (Solidarity) formed in 1980 in the Lenin shipyards, Gdansk, after a wave of strikes in Poland

Martial law imposed in 1981, unions banned and thousands of Solidarnosc members detained

Union rebuilds, largely underground

In 1987 popular opposition to communism grows and Solidarnosc organises publicly

Communism collapses in 1988; Lech Walesa elected leader of Opposition

Solidarnosc legalised in 1989; partially free el

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