# Labour Union (Poland)

Labour Union (Polish: Unia Pracy, UP) is a minor social-democratic political party in Poland. It was a member of the Party of European Socialists (PES) until April 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). 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 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.
In 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.
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

| Election | Candidate | 1st round | 1st round | 2nd round | 2nd round |
| Election | Candidate | # 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) | | |
| 2015 | none | | | | |
| 2020 | Waldemar Witkowski | 27,290 | 0.1 (#10) | | |
| 2025 | | TBD | TBD | | |

### Sejm

| Election | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Government |
| 1993 | 1,005,004 | 7.3 (#4) | 41 / 460 | New | SLD-PSL (1993) (confidence and supply) |
| 1993 | 1,005,004 | 7.3 (#4) | 41 / 460 | New | SLD-PSL (1994-1997) |
| 1997 | 620,611 | 4.7 (#6) | 0 / 460 | 41 | Extra-parliamentary |
| 2001 | 5,342,519 | 41.0 (#1) | 16 / 460 | New | SLD-UP-PSL (2001-2003) |
| 2001 | 5,342,519 | 41.0 (#1) | 16 / 460 | New | SLD-UP (2003-2004) |
| 2001 | 5,342,519 | 41.0 (#1) | 16 / 460 | New | SLD-UP-SDPL (2004-2005) |
| As part of the SLD-UP coalition, that won 216 seats in total. ||||||
| 2005 | 459,380 | 3.9 (#7) | 0 / 460 | 16 | Extra-parliamentary |
| In an electoral alliance with Social Democracy of Poland and Greens 2004, that won no seats. ||||||
| 2007 | 2,122,981 | 13.2 (#3) | 0 / 460 | 0 | Extra-parliamentary |
| As part of the Left and Democrats coalition, that won 53 seats in total. ||||||
| 2011 | 1,184,303 | 8.24 (#5) | 0 / 460 | 0 | Extra-parliamentary |
| In an electoral alliance with Democratic Left Alliance, that won 27 seats in total. ||||||
| 2015 | 1,147,102 | 7.55 (#5) | 0 / 460 | 0 | Extra-parliamentary |
| As part of the United Left coalition, that won no seats. ||||||
| 2019 | 5,060,355 | 27.4 (#2) | 0 / 460 | 0 | Extra-parliamentary |
| As part of Civic Coalition, that won 134 seats in total. ||||||
| 2023 | 1,859,018 | 8.6 (#4) | 0 / 460 | 0 | Extra-parliamentary |
| As part of The Left, that won 26 seats in total. ||||||

### Senate

| Election | Seats | +/– |
| 1993 | 2 / 100 | New |
| 1997 | 0 / 100 | 2 |
| 2001 | 5 / 100 | 5 |
| As part of the SLD-UP coalition. ||
| 2005 | 0 / 100 | 5 |
| 2007 | 0 / 100 | |
| 2023 | 1 / 100 | 1 |
| As part of Senate Pact 2023. ||

### European Parliament

| Election | Votes | % | Seats | +/− | EP Group |
| 2004 | 569,311 | 9.35 (#5) | 1 / 54 | New | PES |
| As part of the SLD-UP coalition, that won 5 seats in total. ||||||
| 2009 | 908,765 | 12.34 (#3) | 1 / 50 | 0 | S&D |
| As part of the SLD-UP coalition, that won 7 seats in total. ||||||
| 2014 | 667,319 | 9.97 (#3) | 1 / 51 | 0 | S&D |
| As part of the SLD-UP coalition, that won 5 seats in total. ||||||
| 2019 | 168,745 | 1.24 (#6) | 0 / 52 | 1 | − |
| As part of the Left Together coalition, that didn't win any seat. ||||||
| 2024 | 741,071 | 6.30 (#5) | 0 / 53 | 0 | − |
| As part of The Left coalition, that won 3 seats in total. ||||||

### Regional assemblies

| Election year | % of vote | # of overall seats won | +/– |
| 1998 | 12.0 (#3) | 89 / 855 | 89 |
| As part of the Social Alliance. ||||
| 2002 | 24.6 (#1) | 189 / 561 | 100 |
| As Democratic Left Alliance – Labour Union. ||||
| 2006 | 14.2 (#4) | 66 / 561 | 123 |
| As part of the Left and Democrats. ||||
| 2010 | 15.2 (#4) | 85 / 561 | 19 |
| As Democratic Left Alliance – Labour Union. ||||
| 2014 | 8.8 (#4) | 28 / 555 | 57 |
| As part of SLD Lewica Razem. ||||
| 2018 | 6.6 (#4) | 11 / 552 | 17 |
| As part of SLD Lewica Razem. ||||

## Leaders

* Waldemar Witkowski
* Marek Pol

## Members of European Parliament

* Adam Gierek (2004–2019)

## 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