Labour Union (, ''UP'') is a minor social-democratic

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. It was a member of the Party of European Socialists (PES) until April 2022.2022 Decision taken by the 12th PES Congress
Berlin, 14-15 October 2022.

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 (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...

). 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 parties or individuals that exists solely to stand in elections. E ...

with the major Polish social-democratic party Democratic Left Alliance (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 (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 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 to form a

centre-left Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commo ...

named Left and Democrats (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 the 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; the party held it in the elections in 2009 and 2014.European Parliament / MEPs: Adam Gierek
In July 2015, the party joined the Zjednoczona Lewica (United Left)

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; again, none of their candidates managed to get elected.

Election results

Presidential

Sejm

Senate

European Parliament

Regional assemblies

Leaders

* Waldemar Witkowski * Marek Pol

Members of European Parliament

* Adam Gierek (2004–2019)

Important former members

* Ryszard Bugaj, left in 1998 *

Zbigniew Bujak Zbigniew Bujak (born 29 November 1954) is a former Polish activist and anti-Communist dissident. Biography Bujak was an electrician and foreman in 1980 at the Ursus Tractor Factory, Ursus tractor factory near Warsaw, Poland. He became engage ...

, until c.1997 * Tomasz Nałęcz, left in 2004 to newly created Social Democracy of Poland * 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 Labour parties Party of European Socialists member parties Political parties established in 1992 Progressive parties Social democratic parties in Poland