Boguslaw Zietek

Bogusław Ziętek (45) has been the leader of the left-wing August ’80 trade union and its political arm, the Polish Workers Party, since 2005. He was born in the Silesian town of Zawiercie.

Zietek finished technical college and does not hold a university degree. He was a parliamentary candidate three times, and twice fought for a seat in the European Parliament in Brussels.

Since 1989 he has organised a number of workers’ strikes throughout Poland, including the country’s first-ever strike by supermarket staff in 2008, at a branch of Tesco in Tychy, southern Poland.

As leader of the August ’80 trade union, he is known to have distanced himself from other trade unions, especially in the mining sector, often being in disagreement over pay demands.

He is single and lives in Silesia.