Trade union membership in this country which owes its existence to trade unions is 14% of workers. Nie has a cover story this week about Solidarity’s disgraceful behaviour during the recent miners’ strike. In brief, a profitable mine was joined with a much less profitable one where the miners earned more, having recently received a pay rise. The “new” miners wanted their pay raised to the level of their less profitable colleagues. One Solidarity activist called for the state to intervene to stop the strike. As can be expected, membership of Solidarity in the mine plunged.

Meanwhile in the Catholic University of Lublin we have the extraordinary spectacle of the management – Catholic clergy – being more tolerant of gays than the Solidarity trade union, headed by one Alina Rynio. Solidarity – you might want to read this twice – has called for the striking from the work regulations of a clause calling for tolerance. A clause, which, nota bene, is taken nearly word for word from the law of the land.

Hence 14% union membership.

(For non-Polish readers, the title of Rynio’s books are:
Raising/Rearing the Young in the Teaching of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński and Intergrated Rearing/Raising in the Thoughts of [inevitably] John Paul II)