Labour Union ( pl, Unia Pracy, ''UP'') is a minor
social-democratic political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...
in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
. It is a member of the
Party of European Socialists
The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a social democratic and progressive European political party.
The PES comprises national-level political parties from all member states of the European Union (EU) plus Norway and the United Kingdom ...
(PES).
History
Labour Union was formed in June 1992. The party contested the
1993 parliamentary elections, obtaining 7.28% of the popular vote and had 41 representatives elected to the lower house (
Sejm
The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland.
The Sejm has been the highest governing body of t ...
). In the following
parliamentary elections of 1997, UP received only 4.74% of votes, thereby falling short of the required 5% threshold for election to the Sejm. At the
2001 parliamentary elections, UP entered into an
electoral alliance
An electoral alliance (also known as a bipartisan electoral agreement, electoral pact, electoral agreement, electoral coalition or electoral bloc) is an association of political party, political parties or individuals that exists solely to stand ...
with the major Polish social-democratic party
Democratic Left Alliance
The Democratic Left Alliance () was a social-democratic political party in Poland. It was formed in 9 July 1991 as an electoral alliance of centre-left parties, and became a single party on 15 April 1999. It was the major coalition party in Pol ...
(SLD), and managed to get 16 of its members elected to parliament. Some of those members subsequently left UP to join the newly created
Social Democracy of Poland
The Social Democracy of Poland ( pl, Socjaldemokracja Polska, SDPL) is a social-democratic political party in Poland.
Foundation
The party was founded in April 2004 as a splinter group from the post-communist Democratic Left Alliance (SLD). Th ...
(SDPL), a splinter group from the SLD. In May 2004, UP signed an alliance with SDPL, in which both parties agreed to jointly contest the following parliamentary elections under the SDPL banner, and to support the candidacy of
Marek Borowski
Marek Stefan Borowski (; born 4 January 1946 in Warsaw, Poland) is a Polish left-wing politician. He led the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) for a time and was Speaker of the Sejm (the lower, more powerful, house of Poland's parliament) from 200 ...
in the
2005 presidential election. At the
2005 parliamentary elections, SDPL gained only 3.9% of the vote, which was insufficient for the alliance to achieve parliamentary representation.
In 2006, UP joined SLD, SDPL and the liberal
Democratic Party – demokraci.pl
The Democratic Party ( pl, Partia Demokratyczna – demokraci.pl), abbreviated to PD, was a minor social-liberal political party in Poland. It had no members of the Sejm, Senate, or European Parliament.
Its foundation was publicly announced o ...
to form a
centre-left
Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The c ...
electoral alliance
An electoral alliance (also known as a bipartisan electoral agreement, electoral pact, electoral agreement, electoral coalition or electoral bloc) is an association of political party, political parties or individuals that exists solely to stand ...
named
Left and Democrats
Left and Democrats ( pl, Lewica i Demokraci, LiD) was a centre-left electoral alliance of political parties in Poland which was created on 3 September 2006, before the Warsaw municipal election of 2006. The coalition's aim was to provide an ...
(LiD) for the upcoming local elections. This electoral alliance was maintained for the
2007 parliamentary elections, and LiD came in third place with 13.2% of the vote, which saw 53 of its candidates elected to the Sejm. Unfortunately for UP, the party was the only one of the four component parties of the LiD alliance not to have any of its candidates elected.
In
2011 parliamentary elections its candidates joined the electoral lists of SLD. Again, none of them were elected.
They managed, however, to win one seat on the European Parliament elections in 2004, and hold it in the elections in 2009 and 2014.
[European Parliament / MEPs: Adam Gierek]
In July 2015 the party joined the
Zjednoczona Lewica (United Left)
electoral alliance
An electoral alliance (also known as a bipartisan electoral agreement, electoral pact, electoral agreement, electoral coalition or electoral bloc) is an association of political party, political parties or individuals that exists solely to stand ...
for the
2015 parliamentary elections. The alliance received 7.6% vote of the vote in the elections, below the 8% electoral threshold leaving it with no parliamentary representation. The alliance was dissolved in February 2016.
In the
2019 parliamentary election, Labour Union candidates ran on the
Civic Coalition’s electoral lists and again, none of their candidates managed to get elected.
Election results
Sejm
Senate
Presidential
European Parliament
Leaders
*
Waldemar Witkowski
*
Marek Pol
Members of European Parliament
*
Adam Gierek (2004–2019)
[
]
Important former members
* Ryszard Bugaj
Ryszard Bugaj (born February 22, 1944 in Gawłów, Masovian Voivodeship) is a Polish politician and economist, former leader of Unia Pracy (Labour Union) and former advisor to the then president of Poland, Lech Kaczyński.
See also
* Politics ...
, left in 1998
* Zbigniew Bujak
Zbigniew Bujak (born 29 November 1954, in Łopuszno) is a former Polish activist and anti-Communist dissident.
Biography
Bujak was an electrician and foreman in 1980 at the Ursus tractor factory near Warsaw, Poland. He became engaged with ...
, until c.1997
* Tomasz Nałęcz
Tomasz Nałęcz (born 10 October 1949 in Gołymin) is a Polish historian, leftist politician, former vice-Speaker of the Sejm, a former member of the Social Democracy of Poland party (SdPl)
In the past he used to be member of the communist Polis ...
, left in 2004 to newly created Social Democracy of Poland
The Social Democracy of Poland ( pl, Socjaldemokracja Polska, SDPL) is a social-democratic political party in Poland.
Foundation
The party was founded in April 2004 as a splinter group from the post-communist Democratic Left Alliance (SLD). Th ...
* Aleksander Małachowski, died January 26, 2004
* Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka, left in 2005, founded Union of the Left
References
External links
Home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Labor United
1992 establishments in Poland
Former member parties of the Socialist International
Party of European Socialists member parties
Political parties established in 1992
Political parties in Poland
Progressive parties
Social democratic parties in Poland