Tesco and Solidarnosc to sign social partnership agreement

Commerce
work in multinational
companies

Uni Commerce and USDAW helped pave the way:
Tesco and Solidarnosc to sign social partnership agreement

British retail multinational Tesco and Uni Commerce affiliate Solidarnosc will sign a partnership agreement before the end of this month. The ground-breaking agreement was finalised in negotiations in Warsaw earlier this week, in the presence of Jan Furstenborg of Uni Commerce. This is the first agreement of its kind with any company in Poland, says Krzystof Zgoda, the organising director of Solidarnosc.

Martha Rogoz , personnel director of Tesco Polska, Czeslaw Gresiak, director and board member, enter their initials on the pages of the social partnership agreement with Solidarnosc. Malgorzata Zachorowska, Tesco personnel director for Central and Eastern Europe keeps a watchful eye on the procedure.

Uni Commerce and British affiliate USDAW have actively promoted the partnership development between Tesco and Solidarnosc. The process started in October last year, when a first meeting between the partners was held in Warsaw, under Uni Commerce auspices. Since then, representatives of the company and the trade union have met regularly, to work out their agreement.

The new social partnership agreement sets the rules for trade union work and social dialogue in Tesco Polska. Solidarnosc, which already has a solid presence in the Tesco hypermarkets, will now step up its organising campaign. A Uni Commerce project has been launched, with the active support and participation of USDAW. This includes the support for a full time Tesco organiser. USDAW will also train some of Solidarnosc's commerce organisers, in the United Kingdom next autumn.