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UNI Commerce and its British affiliate Usdaw will continue their cooperation with Poland's Solidarnosc, to build trade unions and social dialogue in leading commerce multinationals. In recent talks in Gdansk with the Polish trade union movement's president Janosz Sniadek, Sir Bill Connor of Usdaw and Jan Furstenborg of UNI Commerce could confirm the success of their three year cooperation project.

Usdaw's general secretary Sir Bill Connor visited Solidarnosc headquarters in Gdansk, together with Jan Furstenborg of UNI Commerce, in the beginning of May. In discussions with the Polish trade union confederation's president Janosz Sniadek, vice president Krzystof Zgoda, and other members of the Solidarnosc leadership, Bill Connor confirmed his union's interest for continued cooperation to organise workers in Tesco and other multinationals. During his visit, Bill Connor handed over a car to Solidarnosc, to be used for organising. Krzystof Zgoda told him that it will be placed in Southern Poland, where Tesco has a particularly strong presence and where organisers can now better reach the company's hypermarkets.

The UNI Commerce organising project with Solidarnosc in Poland is supported by Usdaw, ver.di of Germany, and HK Handel of Denmark. The aim of the project is to build new trade union structures in the leading multinational retailers and wholesalers, who already have a dominating role on the Polish market. This cooperation has already brought good results, with trade unions present in most of these companies.

In Solidarnosc, headquarters in Gdansk are directly responsible for this project cooperation, until representative structures have been established. Krzystof Zgoda, vice president of the organisation, is assisted by a team of young organisers. Supported by its affiliates in the United Kingdom, Germany and Denmark, UNI Commerce has trained them for their tasks.

The successful organising concept joins the partners together in a coalition, each with their own tasks. Solidarnosc itself does the organising, UNI Commerce supports the activities through close contacts with the company managements, and the supporting affiliates help with training and trade union development.

Krzystof Zgoda runs the organising department of Solidarnosc, in addition to being a board member of the confederation. In a few years, his small team of young organisers have established a solid union presence in companies such as Tesco, Metro, Carrefour, Casino, Auchan, Ahold and others. The focus of Solidarnosc is on recruiting members, starting up a social dialogue and negotiating collective agreements. The union works closely with UNI Commerce, whose role it is to ensure that the process meets with the acceptance and cooperation of management. The Solidarnosc organisers have been trained by UNI Commerce and affiliates, such as Usdaw, Germany's ver.di and Denmark's HK Handel. The car which Usdaw now put at their disposal will greatly enhance their efficiency in this large country, particularly as most hypermarkets are outside city centres and thus out of reach of efficient public transportation.

In Gdansk, a major step forward was taken when Sir Bill Connor handed over a car to Solidarnosc, to be used by the organisers. Poland is a large country, and collective transport is not always suitable for organisers who have to move from one hypermarket to another. The new Rover will now be based in Southern Poland and used particularly for an intensified organising campaign in Tesco, Britain's leading retailer.

During the talks in Gdansk, social dialogue developments in Metro's hypermarket chain Real were discussed between UNI Commerce and Solidarnosc. The union is well organised in Real and there is a tradition of proper labour relations, which UNI Commerce and the Metro Group management have actively contributed to establish. More recently, problems with trade union recognition and collective agreement negotiations were encountered, After a direct UNI Commerce intervention with the Metro and Real managements, and subsequent direct contacts between the social partners in Poland, the social dialogue should once again be on the right track.