The incident took place on Monday, January 30, in Okmiany. Trade unionists from OZZ Inicjatywa Pracownicza Amazon who wanted to hold a strike referendum were not allowed onto the warehouse premises. – It is hard, exhausting work. That is why we demand fair pay for our hard work – explains trade unionist Blanka Hasterok. And trade unionist Adam Adamski adds:

We remember 2020 well, when the whole world closed itself indoors, while we, Amazon’s women and men workers, continued travelling to warehouses to work. At that time, Amazon earned billions, millions of euros, through our work and our exposure to danger. And now, when there is a war beyond our border and record inflation, when we spend more and more each month on the same products, Amazon is offering us a pitiful raise of PLN 1.50 gross per hour.

The trade unionists stress that they are acting in accordance with the law. They also say that at the current hourly rates they earn around the national minimum wage. – Amazon is afraid of this referendum and, ultimately, of a strike – adds B. Hasterok.

The matter was taken up by Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk, an MP from Nowa Lewica, who came to Okmiany to intervene as a parliamentarian. She was not allowed in either. This is how she described the incident on her social media profile:

Amazon—one of the richest corporations in the world—is preventing workers from engaging in a lawful collective dispute in which they are demanding a gross pay increase of PLN 6!

(...) At Amazon’s WRO5 warehouse in Okmiany, Lower Silesia, a strike referendum was to be held as part of a collective dispute lawfully conducted by employees and trade unionists from OZZ Inicjatywa Pracownicza. The dispute concerns a gross increase of PLN 6 per hour. Today, for hard and exhausting work in Amazon warehouses, employees earn around the minimum wage—it is hardly surprising that they are fighting for raises!

And she stressed:

Holding a strike referendum in which 50% of employees take part is a necessary condition for legally joining a strike. This is precisely what Amazon does not want to allow at any cost, and that is why it is obstructing—or effectively preventing—employees from holding the referendum.

Amazon is breaking the law in this way—hindering employees’ lawful efforts to strike, for example during the voting phase, constitutes a crime referred to in Article 26(1)(1) of the Act on the Resolution of Collective Disputes. It is punishable by a fine or even restriction of liberty. The fine may amount to as much as PLN 1,080,000.

– The Amazon corporation became afraid of the success of the strike referendum at other warehouses, including in Wrocław. After that success in turnout, it began sending letters and prohibiting the further conduct of the strike referendum. This is an obvious violation of the law concerning the resolution of collective disputes – the parliamentarian said during Monday’s press conference in Okmiany.

She added that a similar situation occurred last week at a warehouse near Łódź. – Representatives of trade unions were not allowed onto the warehouse premises so that they could conduct such a referendum – she stated. – I submitted a notification to the National Labour Inspectorate concerning the possibility of a violation of the Act on the Resolution of Collective Disputes, together with a request for an inspection.

The same will happen in the case of the situation in Okmiany. The MP said:

(...) as a left-wing politician and socialist, I have the honour of standing with women and men workers organising in the fight for dignified treatment and pay. That is why I was with them (...) outside the warehouse in Okmiany, that is why I asked the National Labour Inspectorate to intervene and conduct an inspection, and that is why, following today’s events, I will notify the prosecutor’s office of the possibility that Amazon has committed a crime.

She also emphasised:

Large Western corporations cannot break Polish law with impunity, restrict workers’ rights and freedoms, or treat Polish workers as second-class employees and cheap labour. They cannot—and the time will come when they will not. For now, I fully support OZZ Inicjatywa Pracownicza Amazon and wish them perseverance. You are not alone

We will return to this topic.

New Left MP on the situation in Okmiany