Who Is Ukraine’s Recovery Really For?
The recent Ukraine Recovery Conference again saw governments and financial institutions discuss the country’s postwar reconstruction. Organized labor was absent, even as Kyiv introduces a new labor code undermining workers’ protections.
Last month’s Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdańsk drew heavily on the symbolism of the Solidarność union, born in the Polish port city. Yet organized labor had no say at the conference, organized to suit international investors.(Wojtek Radwanski / AFP via Getty Images)
More than two hundred businesses were present at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdańsk, Poland, at the end of June, eighty-two of them from Ukraine. But out of Ukraine’s eighty-three sectoral trade unions, none had so much as a stall, let alone a seat on a main panel. That asymmetry is telling; and for Ukrainian activists, taking part in the conference was something of a cold shower.
Dressed Up as Solidarity
For Natalia Zemlianska from the Trade Union of Producers, Entrepreneurs, and Migrant Workers, the issue was clear: “Why bother listening about labor rights, workplace safety, or decent wages, if people are now viewed exclusively as a convenient raw material for pouring concrete with donor money?” Her comment summed up the reality on the floor better than any official statement could.
By many accounts, this was one of the biggest Recovery Conferences held since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In addition to numerous government delegations, international financial institutions, and civil society groups descending on Gdańsk for two days, there was a record number of participants and businesses involved and even a former US astronaut.
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