Organized Labor In Postcommunist States

Book excerpt: The end of communism was marked by many ironies, not the least of which was the emergence of working-class movements that challenged what the party-state called "workers' paradises." Throughout eastern Europe, labor unions played a significant role in bringing about regime change, then emerged as the largest organizations in civil society.Once well-positioned to play a significant role in-if not to dominate-the postcommunist transformation of Russia, Poland, Ukraine, and Hungary (among other countries), organized labor groups have largely vanished from the stage. Examining and explaining this disjunction is the focus of Organized Labor in Postcommunist States.Paul Kubicek offers a comparative study of organized labor's fate in four postcommunist countries, and examines the political and economic consequences of labor's weakness. He notes that with few exceptions, trade unions have lost members and suffered from low public confidence. Unions have failed to act while changing economic policies have resulted in declining living standards and unemployment for their membership.While some of labor's problems can be traced to legacies of the communist period, Kubicek draws upon the experience of unions in the West to argue that privatization and nascent globalization are creating new economic structures and a political playing field hostile to organized labor. He concludes that labor is likely to remain a marginalized economic and political force for the foreseeable.