EN
The article describes the attitude to the trade unions in Toruń’s enterprises aft er martial law at the beginning of 1989. It includes quantitative and qualitative data about trade union membership and their social reception. It refers to the condition of the trade unions in the district and in the country. The research is mainly analytical. The article also contains synthetic information and attempts to analyze the data. The comparative approach plays a very important function and it also embraces the reception of the trade unions in individual enterprises. The most attention was given to the trade unions in the biggest enterprises – ZWCh “Elana” and TPCz “Merinotex”. Originally, in both factories workers displayed a visible dislike to the trade unions, but between 1986 and 1987 the trade union membership rose considerably in “Merinotex”. The article also deals with members of the Polish United Workers’ Party. Although the party’s authorities advocated the party’s members’ involvement in the trade unions, in the beginning workers were not particularly interested in joining them.