Peak Level Unions and Their Struggles for Political Relevance In
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Strategic Choices during System Change: Peak Level Unions and Their Struggles for Political Relevance In Post-Socialist Slovenia, Serbia and Poland By Tibor Mesman A Doctoral Dissertation Submitted to the Central European University Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy, and International Relations in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervisor: Prof. Dorothee Bohle CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary May 2012 ii CEU eTD Collection Statement I hereby state that the thesis contains no materials accepted for any other degrees in any other institutions. This thesis contains no materials previously written and/or published by another person, except where appropriate acknowledgment is made in the form of bibliographical reference. Tibor Mesman CEU eTD Collection iii iv CEU eTD Collection Abstract In this dissertation I explore the conditions of successful struggle for political relevance of ‘inherited’ national level trade unions in Slovenia (ZSSS) compared to the less successful cases in Poland (OPZZ) and the least successful Serbian union (SSS) during the period of system change from socialism (1987/8-1993/4) and assess the implications of these struggles for trade union trajectories until 2010. The project develops a critical juncture - path-dependency argument as a theoretical framework for understanding the various trajectories of these three peak level unions. I demonstrate that unions’ own critical choices and strategies of organizational self-empowerment during the system change period have mattered in shaping organizational trajectories. I argue that unions were able to become politically relevant if and only if they had overcome specific ‘inherited’ organizational vulnerabilities, achieved autonomy, and adapted to and increased their own capacities in the new environment, and exercised an autonomous voice in influencing politics and policy-making. Perceived in this way, I demonstrate that organizational reform and political self-positioning during system change had a lasting effect, leaving a sticky imprint on union trajectories. Slovenia’s ZSSS demonstrates a successful case, where the union built on its organizational resources and increased mobilization capacities, and took advantage of a wide space for strategic maneuvering for taking part in ideological struggles and policy CEU eTD Collection making. In contrast, in an authoritarian populist elite-dominated Serbia, the trade union leadership of the SSS even gave up its struggle for autonomy from the elite. It disregarded the potential for mobilization of the rank and file members in favor of the security, protection, and v preserved representational monopoly from the state. Finally, unlike the SSS the Polish OPZZ had sufficient autonomy to select its path, but it had less organizational capacities and faced greater political challenges than the ZSSS. The OPZZ overcame political isolation by entering into a political coalition, a strategy which, in the long run, execrated internal organizational vulnerabilities. By comparing the three cases I offer a corrective to understandings of trade unionism in Eastern Europe. I highlight the importance of resource mobilization and organizational self- empowerment at critical moments, dangers and advantages of alliances with political parties, and, especially, the under-explored factor of organizational resources as conditions for the ‘success’ of peak level unions. I find that the variation in union trajectories is explained by the historically rooted functions and character of the state (Birnbaum 1982) rather than the short- term choices and policies of the elite during system change as it is commonly understood in the literature. CEU eTD Collection vi Acknowledgements This project was a long and turbulent journey. During these years I accumulated a great deal of support, learned a lot, shared emotions and fortified friendships. These acknowledgments do not even attempt to list all the people involved in providing me with help and support of various sorts. This dissertation would not be possible without the support and belief of my supervisor, Dorothee Bohle. Like many students, back in 2004 I was inspired by her course on the politics of labor: in my case it was decisive in turning my interests strongly toward union politics from a rather different background, and selecting my topic and primary advisor accordingly. All the ungrateful tasks of pushing me into the deep water necessary for defining a clearer focus for my ideas and then reading through and providing systematic feedback on sometimes massive chapter drafts fell to her. I also learned a lot, received inspiring feedback and was assisted in various ways by my secondary advisors, Nenad Dimitrijevic and Bela Greskovits. For the archival research I conducted in the cities of Budapest, Belgrade, Novi Sad, Warsaw, Gdansk and Ljubljana, the staff in libraries and archives provided me with great deal of assistance, which I very much needed when I faced the abundance of materials on trade unions. Over the months I spent in these libraries, the help I received there typically surpassed what I could imagine. The most inspiring part of the research was my interviews with union leaders, professionals and activists. These encounters were crucial in providing the detail that allowed me to make sense of the larger picture. I thank all my interviewees wholeheartedly. A special thanks go to those who helped me in organizing these first encounters, provided good advice for later contacts, and even referred me to very useful literature: Mihail Arandarenko, Gradimir Ivanic and Zoran Stojiljkovic in Belgrade, Jacek Kochanowicz, Andrzej Matla and Stanislaw Nowakowski in Warsaw and Gdansk, Miroslav Stanojevic and Rastko Plohl in Ljubljana and Ptuj. I benefited from the full doctoral fellowship and various research grants from the Central European University, including one that allowed me to spend a full semester at the Center for European Studies of Rutgers University. Here I experienced a very supportive academic environment and was particularly supported by Jan Kubik who helped me to deepen my knowledge on trade unions in Poland and involved me in various academic and social events. In writing up the dissertation Andrea Kirchknopf at the Center for Academic Writing helped me not only to improve the style and language of the dissertation, but also to gather additional writing skills. Many colleagues turned into friends in the course of this project. Among the many, I mention here CEU eTD Collection only three: Magda Bernaciak, Ursa Mavric and Vera Scepanovic, since they were involved also in reading chapters or organizing research. My family has been an endless source of understanding and patience. I am particularly grateful to Amy Wang and Stefan Messmann for their support and for convincing me to come to CEU in the vii first place. The most personal thank you goes to Elissa Helms, but words stop short here. You can always count on a pesma Nišlijska from me. As a partial compensation for not having as much time as I would have liked for them, I dedicate this dissertation to Andi, Edi, Edvin and Flóra, the new generation. CEU eTD Collection viii Table of Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1. The political relevance of peak level unions in post-socialist Europe: Explaining the success of Slovenia’s ZSSS........................................................................................... 11 1.1. Unions, civil society, and strategic choices ......................................................... 11 1.1.1. The puzzling contrast: Underestimated external shocks vis-a-vis the relative strength of unionism.............................................................................................. 12 1.1.2. The legacies of unions: evaluation of common assessments ......................... 16 1.1.3. Variation at the outcome level: union legacies and ‘elite politics’ as two intervening factors ................................................................................................................... 21 1.1.4. Organizational capacities and choices shaping union trajectories ................. 28 1.2. Research Design and Methods............................................................................ 35 1.2.1. The emergence of unions as relevant organizations. Agency, strategic choice, critical juncture, and path-dependency .............................................................................. 36 1.2.2. Case selection: Peak level unions in Poland, and in two former republics of socialist Yugoslavia (Serbia and Slovenia).......................................................................... 40 1.2.3. Case study methods, and historical and statistical data ................................. 54 Chapter 2. Slovenia’s ZSSS: Escalation Tactics and the Insider-Outside Problem ........ 58 2. 1. The successful pattern of escalation tactics ........................................................ 60 2.2. The internal cause of success: reform as adaptation and self-empowerment ........ 65 2.2.1. Accelerated reform during the last years of self-management socialism ....... 67 2.2.2. The congress of 1990 as the peak of reform and political self-positioning .... 74 2. 2.3. Outcomes of the reform congress: crisis and breakthrough.......................... 79 2.3. ZSSS’ militancy, combined with conditional alliances