This article evaluates progress towards independent trade unionism in the post-command economies of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and, in most detail, the Czech Republic. A general introduction is followed by presentation of survey evidence on the views and experiences of trade unionism among workers, union members and union representatives. Issues covered include changing attitudes towards trade unions over the first seven years of capitalist transformation, types of union-management relationships, trade union influence at the workplace, and problems of union decline and retention. The article addresses the relationship between employers and managers and unions, and that between workers and their unions. The conclusions drawn are that unions have made substantial progress in establishing the institutional frameworks of labour representation; but collective bargaining is weak; and unless union membership decline is reversed, labour representation as such seems vulnerable.
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