WHAT DOES THE NSZZ SOLIDARNOSC DO?

The Union's objectives are to defend the rights, dignity and employees' interests of the members and in particular to:

1. protect the health, material, social, and cultural interests of its members and their families;
2. guarantee workers' rights in the areas of employment, remuneration, living and workplace health and safety conditions;
3. undertake efforts to harmonise proper enterprise management with workers' interests;
4. strengthen the family and protect family life;
5. promote, foster and strengthen democracy and friendly relations among workers;
6. guarantee employees the right to improve their vocational qualifications;
7. protect culture and education in a broad sense;
8. influence economic and social policies;
9. foster an active patriotic attitude;
10. undertake environmental protection initiatives;
11. broaden the knowledge of the Union members;
12. fight unemployment and assist unemployed Union members.

The Union shall achieve its objectives by:

1. representing its members before employers, the government, the state administration, local government and social organisations and institutions;
2. concluding and terminating collective and other labour agreements between the Union and employers;
3. providing legal counsel and intervening in employee-employer conflicts;
4. organising and leading employees' protest actions in cases of substantial violations of workers' rights and in particularly justified cases declaring strike;
5. initiating and organising mutual assistance among Union members;
6. union training and vocational retraining;
7. informing members of Union activities and conducting press and publishing activities;
8. endeavouring to guarantee Union members and their families vacation opportunities, meet their decent housing needs, nursery provide and pre-school services for children, as well as their proper share of benefits from the social and other enterprise-managed funds;
9. combating symptoms of social pathologies;
10. supporting initiatives to improve the economy and develop culture, education, science and technological progress;
11. conducting cultural and educational activities, creating conditions for leisure time relaxation;
12. co-operating with the government, state administration and local governments within legally defined bounds;
13. monitoring workplace health and safety conditions; undertaking activities provided for by law, when a threat to workers' life and health arises; providing periodical inspection of workplaces and forbidding union members to work in conditions which do not comply with established standards;
14. co-operating with the health care service to protect the health of workers and their families;
15. conducting research on workers' living standards and costs of living;
16. publicly rendering opinions on drafts of laws and on regulations concerning: the life of working people, worker representation, employee participation in management, social legislation, as well as key decisions on distribution of national budget, investment policies, distribution of the social consumption fund, market supply, housing policy, wage and price policy, and other matters of vital importance to working people;
17. granting material assistance to Union members;
18. establishing agencies to carry out constitutional tasks;
19. conducting business activity to obtain resources to carry out constitutional tasks;
20. creating the following special purpose funds: a strike fund, educational/training funds, a fund to hire experts and an unemployment fund;
21. participating in creating and operating of pension funds and other forms of insurances.