From Socialist Landmark to Subsidiary: The Case of Huta Lenina

This chapter presents the company case study. After briefly sketching the role of Huta Lenina in Polish history, we will study its development from a landmark of socialism into a subsidiary of a global steel company. We will in particular reconstruct the employment restructuring across the three phases 1990–1998, 1999–2003, 2004–2006). During the first period of restructuring in 1990–1998, restructuring happened mainly naturally by a reduced intake and natural retirements, it nevertheless encompassed a huge number of workers. The second phase, 1999–2001/2003, represented the most effective in terms of reduction, with about 18,734 employees at all sites of MSP leaving the company, and a particularly large number at Nowa Huta alone, 7887. In the third phase, after the termination of the Steelmakers Social Package sectoral programme, not many reductions occurred; only with privatisation, when the new owner had to respect the EU obligations, did the number increase again — 2097 workers at all four sites leaving with one of the voluntary redundancy packages. Apart from the creation of some subsidiaries, restructuring was first strategically implemented in 1999, consisting of early- and pre-retirement schemes, redundancy packages and training. Subsidiary parts from the main works have been created since 1991, but it was only under Mittal that there has been a system used strategically with a view to optimising production, costs and productivity, as well as viability.