Adam Mrozowicki, Mateusz Karolak and Agata Krasowska (2016) Between commitment and indifference. Trade unions, young workers and the expansion of precarious employment in Poland, [in:] Violaine Delteil, Vassil Kirov (eds.) Labour and Social Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe: Europeanization and Beyond, Routledge, pp. 228-246.
This chapter explores the three waves of expansion of precarious employment in Poland and the responses to them by the Polish government, trade unions and young workers affected. In the broader context of domestic, European and global factors, it is shown that more experimental trade unions and social movement strategies aimed at counteracting precarisation began to emerge following the economic slowdown of the late 2000s. However, based on qualitative research on young precarious workers, it is also argued that the future of the emergent counter-movements will depend on their ability to adjust their tactics to the increasingly “flexibilitised” life strategies of young workers.
