Eastern European regions adjacent to Germany and Austria especially are well connected to Western European consumer markets, with a growing network of airports and motorways. What make Eastern European countries like Poland attractive for logistics and industrial capital are not the local consumers but labour costs that are significantly lower than in Western Europe, capital-friendly labour laws, cheap land, and tax bonuses offered by the state. Amazon’s Polish warehouses service customers in neighbouring Germany, not in Poland. Two more will open in the fall of 2017 near Szczecin and in Sosnowiec (close to Katowice), and there are rumours that one more is planned for 2018 close to Łódź. In 2014, Amazon set up its first warehouses in Poland, one close to Poznań and two close to Wroclaw. This blog is extracted from Choke Points, a collection edited by Jake Alimahomed-Wilson and Immanuel Ness that tells the stories of the workers who undermine capitalism at its weakest point, from South China dockworkers, to the Southern California logistics sector. In this blog, Amazon warehouse workers provide a first-hand account of their work and their struggles. When Amazon arrived in Poland, it was attracted by cheap labour costs and strict union laws, little did it know that the high-pressure working conditions it institutes would produce wildcat strikes and cross-border solidarities amongst its Polish workforce. Global capitalism is a precarious system, relying on the steady flow of goods across the world.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |