Labour Union (Poland)
![]() | You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Polish. (July 2017) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
![]() | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Labour Union Unia Pracy | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Leader | Waldemar Witkowski |
Founded | June 1992 |
Preceded by | PUS |
Headquarters | ul. Nowogrodzka 4, 00-513 Warsaw |
Youth wing | Labor Union Youth Federation |
Ideology | Social democracy Progressivism |
Political position | Centre-left |
European affiliation | Party of European Socialists |
European Parliament group | Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats |
International affiliation | None |
Colours | Red |
Sejm | 0 / 460
|
Senate | 0 / 100
|
European Parliament | 1 / 51
|
Regional assemblies | 1 / 555
|
Website | |
http://www.uniapracy.org.pl/ | |
Labour Union (Polish: Unia Pracy, UP) is a minor social-democratic[1][2] political party in Poland. It is a member of the Party of European Socialists (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). 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 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 electoral alliance 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 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.[3]
On July 2015 the party joined the Zjednoczona Lewica (United Left) electoral alliance 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.
Election results
Sejm
Election year | # of votes |
% of vote |
# of overall seats won |
+/– | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1993 | 1,005,004 | 7.3 (#4) | 41 / 460
|
![]() | ||
1997 | 620,611 | 4.7 (#6) | 0 / 460
|
![]() | ||
2001 | 5,342,519 | 41.0 (#1) | 16 / 460
|
![]() | ||
As part of the SLD-UP coalition, which won 216 seats in total. | ||||||
2005 | 1,459,380 | 3.9 (#7) | 0 / 460
|
![]() | ||
In an electoral alliance with Social Democracy of Poland and Greens 2004. | ||||||
2007 | 2,122,981 | 13.2 (#3) | 0 / 460
|
![]() | ||
As part of the Left and Democrats coalition, which won 53 seats in total. |
Senate
Election year | # of overall seats won |
+/– | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1993 | 0 / 100
|
|||||
1997 | 0 / 100
|
![]() | ||||
2001 | 5 / 100
|
|||||
As part of the SLD-UP coalition. | ||||||
2005 | 0 / 100
|
![]() | ||||
2007 | 0 / 100
|
![]() |
Presidential
Election year | Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
# of overall votes | % of overall vote | # of overall votes | % of overall vote | ||
1995 | Tadeusz Zieliński | 631,432 | 3.5 (#6) | ||
2000 | Supported Aleksander Kwaśniewski | 9,485,224 | 53.9 (#1) | ||
2005 | none | ||||
2010 | Supported Grzegorz Napieralski | 2,299,870 | 13.7 (#3) |
European Parliament
Election year | # of votes |
% of vote |
# of overall seats won |
+/– | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2004 | 569,311 | 9.4 | 1 / 54
|
![]() | ||
As part of the SLD-UP coalition, which won 5 seats in total. | ||||||
2009 | 908,765 | 12.3 | 1 / 50
|
![]() | ||
As part of the SLD-UP coalition, which won 7 seats in total. | ||||||
2014 | 667,319 | 9.4 | 1 / 51
|
![]() | ||
As part of the SLD-UP coalition, which won 5 seats in total. |
Timeline of Polish socialist/social democratic parties after 1986 |
•Polish Socialist Party (1987–) •Polish Social Democratic Union (1990–1992) •Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland (1990–1999) •Democratic-Social Movement (1991–1992) •Labour Union (1992–) •National Party of Retirees and Pensioners (1994–) •Democratic Left Alliance (1999–2021) •Reason Party (2002–2013) •Social Democracy of Poland (2004–) •Freedom and Equality (2005–) •Polish Left (2008–) •Left Together (2015–) •Spring (2019–2021) •New Left (2021–) |
Leaders
Members of European Parliament
Adam Gierek (since 2004)[3]
Important former members
- Ryszard Bugaj, left in 1998
- Zbigniew Bujak, 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
- ^ Ingo Peters (September 2011). 20 Years Since the Fall of the Berlin Wall: Transitions, State Break-Up and Democratic Politics in Central Europe and Germany. BWV Verlag. pp. 275–. ISBN 978-3-8305-1975-1. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
- ^ Larry Diamond (29 July 1997). Consolidating the Third Wave Democracies. JHU Press. pp. 127–. ISBN 978-0-8018-5794-2. Retrieved 21 July 2013.
- ^ a b European Parliament / MEPs: Adam Gierek.