Searching for equilibrium in labour relations before the EU accession: Developing grassroots trade unions in private companies in Poland

Abstract

The article focuses on an analysis of seven cases of the emergence of trade unions in private companies of the greenfield type in Poland before the EU accession in 2004, when the conditions on the labour market in Poland were at their worst. The formation of a trade union is understood as creating a workers’ instrument, designed to equalize the asymmetrical labour relations within the company. Research data are interpreted according to the perspective of Bourdieu’s forms of capital.