Poles strike less than their European counterparts Shutterstock

According to data collected by The Economist, the number of days spent on strike by workers in Poland is one of the lowest in Europe. The number of strikes has been falling over the last few years. According to experts quoted by Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, this is caused by a falling number of typical employee contracts, rising unemployment and a falling number of trade union members.

This is a reversal of the trend seen in the rest of the Europe. After the fall of Lehman Brothers in 2008, in Spain alone there have been 700 strikes. In the United Kingdom between 2008-2011 there were 130 strikes per year. Poland ranks in the top four European countries for smallest number of strikes. Only the Swedes, Dutch and Germans go on strike more rarely then Poles.

Social psychologist Janusz Czapiński said that the recent wave of unemployment hit a wide population rather than a specific group that could organize protests. Also, the number of employees that are in labor unions has dropped significantly. At the beginning of the 1990s, 25 percent of all workers were in a union, now it's just 6 percent.

Poland A.M.