JSW on the edge. 82 trade unions and the company's growing crisis

This year, JSW will not be so rich. As the company informs us, the salary forecast for 2026, taking into account the effects of the February agreement on salary reductions due to the disastrous financial situation of JSW, is – approx. 13.7 thousand zloty. In total, this agreement is expected to bring the company savings of PLN 1.2 billion.

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Moreover, in January, “Gazeta Wyborcza” described the court testimony of the former vice-president of JSW, according to which, in the case of a tender worth PLN 27 million, the head of “S” in the company, Sławomir Kozłowski, wanted an external company to win it. “The president of our daughter company heard that the head of Solidarity is in charge at JSW and it should be as he wants. He was told to withdraw from the tender for works worth PLN 27 million – Tomasz Śledź, former vice-president of Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa, admitted in court,” “GW” reported.

Solidarity did not answer our question about this matter.

In turn, the head of OPZZ, Piotr Ostrowski, points out that when it comes to allegations of rigging tenders for external services at JSW, the responsibility ultimately falls on the management board – because it signs the contracts.

However, in response to our questions about the connections of external entities carrying out tasks commissioned by it with trade unions, the company replied that it did not know which entities were related to the unions, and “all tender procedures are carried out in accordance with the law.”

JSW's financial situation “is extremely difficult”

We asked the Ministry of State Assets, which supervises JSW, to assess the company's current situation and prospects.

“The situation of JSW is extremely difficult. The company incurred a net loss of PLN 2.9 billion in the period Q1-Q3 2025. This is primarily related to low prices of coking coal and coke on global markets, the strengthening of the Polish zloty against the dollar and high costs of operating the company and random events,” the ministry enumerates in its response.

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He points out that JSW is only responsible for approximately 2%. world production, which means it has no impact on the market price of coal. Additionally, the company is negatively affected by the decline in the dollar exchange rate, which reduces its export revenues.

It was completely different during the energy crisis of 2021-2022. Then the prices of coal, including coking coal, increased significantly. Then they started to decline rapidly. For example, in 2022 the price of coking coal was PLN 1,510 per tonne, in 2024 – PLN 899 per tonne, and in the first half of 2025 even lower – PLN 693.53 per tonne. To counteract price fluctuations, a Closed-End Investment Fund (FIZ) was established in recent years. However, the funds from the Fund have already been used.

Meanwhile labor costs in the company were gradually increasing. In 2019, they amounted to PLN 3.7 billion, and in 2024, they amounted to PLN 5.8 billion. The largest increase, according to MAP, was recorded in 2022-2023. — In 2023 alone, labor costs reached approximately PLN 6 billion (increased by 29.6% year on year), the ministry calculates. However, during this time there was also a sudden increase in inflation.

However, the same is true when it comes to employment. In 2019, it reached 29,440 people, and in 2024 the crew numbered 32,222 people, which means an increase of over 9%.

Additionally, 2021 includes: a fateful agreement between the JSW management board and representative trade union organizations. Under it, the employment guarantees from 2011 for JSW employees were extended for another 10 years. The social side requested a period of 5 years, so doubling this period was de facto a gift from the management.

As a result, notes the Ministry of Assets, “regardless of the level of production, labor costs remain unchanged, which limits the company's ability to reduce its fixed costs.”

Another millstone in JSW's neck was the fact that during the PiS government, as the only entity in Poland, the company had to pay a solidarity contribution for 2022. This resulted in a double burden on its income for 2022 – 19%. CIT tax and 25% solidarity contribution.

— The contribution was to cover the profits that EU companies obtained due to price increases on energy markets. JSW produces coking coal for the steel industry, not the energy industry. Despite this, the government at that time designed the regulations to cover JSW with the contribution, says the Ministry of State Assets.

We also asked the Ministry of State Assets how it perceives the attitude of trade unions at JSW towards the company's current crisis situation.

— Talks with the social side regarding negotiations of the terms of the recovery plan were substantive, but, considering the dramatic situation of the company, they lasted much too long – we hear in the response.

According to the ministry, the passage of time has made it impossible to take advantage of many opportunities that were available before the end of 2025, and the range of available solutions has significantly shrunk.

— Trade unions that have their representatives on the company's governing bodies should be aware of how bad the condition of JSW is. and that it will deteriorate rapidly as a result of prolonged negotiations. At the same time, it is worth praising JSW employees for their collective participation in the referendum and their almost unanimous consent to implement corrective actions, replies the ministry.

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MAP's management also declares that it is “determined to save the company because it is important for strategic reasons.”: mining of coking coal needed for steel production.

– However, it is necessary to take savings measures, maintain cost discipline and sell unnecessary parts of assets and obtain part of the financing on market principles – replies the ministry.

Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa does not reflect the situation of trade unions in Poland

We asked Piotr Ostrowski, head of OPZZ – one of the three largest trade union headquarters in Poland, to comment on the multitude of unions at JSW.

— The fact that there are 82 trade unions at JSW is the result of trade union pluralism in Poland. As a result, according to the Trade Union Act, 10 people are enough to establish a union. However, in practice, social dialogue with 82 trade unions is impossible, he emphasizes.

Moreover, he adds, in accordance with the Act, the representativeness of unions applies not only at the level of the Social Dialogue Council, where we have three headquarters: OPZZ, Solidarity and the Trade Union Forum, but also in workplaces. — Employers can only negotiate with representative organizations, i.e. those that bring together at least 8 percent. crew and belong to “S”, OPZZ or FZZ, or 15 percent crews, if they do not belong to these three headquarters – explains Ostrowski.

– But employers sometimes don't want to use this tool because if they have 82 organizations at the table, they will argue after five seconds – he points out.

He adds that the Trade Union Act states that a trade union is entitled to a full-time job when the organization exceeds 150 members, and another full-time job when it has more than 500 members. Moreover, says Ostrowski, according to the act, if a given employee belongs to more than one union, he should not be counted twice.

— However, if the employer agrees, under internal documents – a collective labor agreement, work regulations, or an agreement with trade unions – he may establish rules that are more favorable to unions than those resulting from the act. For example, it may guarantee one trade union position per 100 members of a given trade union organization – points out Piotr Ostrowski.

However, such changes, he notes, require a decision of the management board of a given company, supervised by the supervisory board, etc.

— In some cases, the management board needs to be more assertive. He can't blame everything on the trade unions. It's not the unions' fault that they try to push themselves as much as possible – it's natural – Ostrowski argues.

Why do employees join several trade unions? According to the head of OPZZ, this is usually due to the fact that, just in case, they prefer to “sign up here, here and here, because if one union does not defend them, they can count on another.”

Is there a need to correct the regulations to limit the phenomena we are dealing with at JSW? – NO. All you need to do is comply with the Trade Union Act, replies Piotr Ostrowski.

— It is not true that trade unions in Poland are overbearing and have too strong a position. On the contrary – in the vast majority of cases we deal with very assertive employers. An extreme example is the Dino case, in which the employer does not recognize a trade union organization, even though it was established – emphasizes the head of OPZZ.

In his opinion, it is possible that – in order to prevent situations such as the one in Dino – it will be necessary to change the law – for example by introducing a presumption that a relationship exists until the case is considered by the court.

Solidarity did not answer our questions.

In October, the head of “S” in the company, Sławomir Kozłowski, when asked about the reasons for JSW's current situation, told us: – I cannot understand why a company that had almost PLN 6 billion invested in the stabilization fund at its disposal when the government changed in Poland did nothing to protect itself against the difficult economic downturn. on global coking coal markets and, for example, increase production. Instead, the recently dismissed management board squandered this cushion by, for example, hiring expensive external advisors.

And he added: – We didn't expect that such money could be wasted so quickly — the financial cushion developed in previous years was spent within 15 months. We do not know what the money was spent on, the management kept this information confidential and did not share with us what the money was spent on.