The Polish grassroots union Inicjatywa Pracownicza
I work at an Amazon warehouse
where all the workers are.
When I ask them to join the union
they tell me they were part of
the 1980's workers movement
but now look where I am.
I work in a warehouse
for a very low wage.
under constant control.
We need to fight against it.
We need to remember that
the older workers movements
influence the workers movements of today.
There are also young Amazon workers
that have no experience with unions.
Low unemployment in Poland
is something very new.
Many regions have almost no unemployment.
Many people do "job hopping"
as they see no future in one workplace.
Many people say they won't be active
because they won't stay longer than a year.
On the other hand when we speak to
monthly temporary workers
they say they want permanent work.
So on the one hand some workers
try to improve their situation by changing jobs
on the other hand they want stability.
And we need higher wages
to pay for higher rent.
So when pressure comes from managers
they come to us for help.
They know where to find us
to ask for support.
But with the job hopping situation,
workers are less scared to take action.
They want to show their anger
They don't want to accept
this permanent control and pressure
That's why I stand up for change.
Some people are not scared to organise
even if it's not easy in Amazon.
A big company with
professional union busters
that go against those who try to organise.
Workers don't always trust eachother,
but after some time we talk to eachother
then we show that we can
start a new form of worker organising
a grassroots movement.
It takes time but
when people see that
we are on the same eye level
they are keen to join.
Since conditions in the Polish
labour market changed
we also need to find
new strategies.
Now when unemployment is low
and wages are rising
it feels like workers
have power to change something.
We were the first in Poland
to talk about Special Economic Zones (SEZ)
where workers have precarious contracts.
For a couple of years
30% of workers didn't even have contracts.
So workers started a campaign
for workers without contracts.
One section of our union started
organising at a subsidiary of LG.
We were the first to raise awareness
of conditions in the SEZ.
Big companies don't have to pay taxes.
In this Chang Hong company
there was a legal strike
according to labour law.
But 30 of our members were fired.
Which shows how bad the situation is
in these SEZ's.
There are 15 SEZ's
but there is a political discussion about
whether we should ban all SEZs
to implement national laws
and whether taxes should be exempt.
Amazon doesn't pay taxes in Poland
because they say they don't
make profit in Poland.
because all commodities
go and come from Germany.
Worker education and infrastructure
is funded by taxes
paid by workers.
But those who proft,
such as Jeff Bezos
the richest man in the world
they don't pay their share.
Working at Amazon has bad health effects
but the healt system depends on taxes
we pay relatively high taxes
and Amazon pays almost nothing.
that has to be said
we need to be aware of this.
Amazon is an international company
which pays nearly no taxes
it uses our infrastructure
it doesn't listen to it workers
and it's time to put an end to this.
I think it's important for workers
to feel they have control
over their union's activities.
I can tell you how the section began.
It began with a group of young workers
who had lived abroad
when they came back they knew
that conditions were worse than abroad
they decided to change this.
They looked for a small union
so that they could have control of it.
so they decided to join the IP.
The people who are now part of IP
said then that they would not join
if they have expensive furniture.
That would be our wages going
into union bureaucracy.
So they saw a little union office
in a working class neighbourhood
this is where we will have
control of our union.
Here there were people
who were sick of the bureaucracy
and compromises of other unions.
they wanted control
and that's why
these sections were founded.
We discussed how to bring together
temporary, full time and female workers.
We also organised
meetings for day labourers.
3rd March this year
we organised a women's congress
There were people from many sectors,
people from the rental movements,
who discussed their problems
there were public sector workers
also amazon workers
and hospital and care workers.
People who organise on a daily basis
There are ofcourse many discussions
for example on the situation of women
and the role of women in organising
This year we will focus on
campaigning to defend workers rights.
We know there are proposals
to bring in new laws.
For example to introduce
zero hour contracts in Poland
or new restrictions on small unions
as opposed to big unions.
We started campaigns and discussions
we protested on the streets
and we talk to workers in the workplace.
At IP we address issues which
bring different workers together.