"The employees want a strike."

Translation: Pracownicy chcą strajku.

[JaimeGarci426248]

Why us Strajk in genitive form here?

[Jellei]

"chcieć" is a strange verb. It takes Accusative in its basic meaning, in simple sentences like "I want soup", but it suddenly takes Genitive instead with abstract notions.

[FredFukada]

Abstract in the sense of non-material; sth you cannot touch?

[Yola448704]

Think of abstracts to want (chcieć), to desire (pragnąć),
to need (potrzebować) like joy (radość), love (miłość),
respect (szacunek), god (bóg), and... money (pieniądze).

Obviously, you cannot have it all... but a little bit of it -
trochę (kogo? czego? - Dopełniacz/Genitive): radości,
miłości, szacunku, boga i... pieniędzy

[FredFukada]

great hint, thanks Yola!

[Bluebell-John]

yes indeed

[Jellei]

Yes. Like for example here, or wanting "world peace" (Chcę pokoju na świecie).

[dklaskowsk]

The English was a bit strange for me. I would think more like "The employees want to strike." But then it would be an infinitive at the end of the Polish sentence instead of a noun in the genitive...

[Jellei]

Actually it seems that it was already an accepted answer for more than a year.

[F4yY9kZj]

The English is fine, either way. Your sentence attributes agency to the employees, Duo's sentence does not (though it doesn't deny agency).

[gsdobek]

Let's give the ladies the same opportunity: "Robotnice chcą strajku"

[alik1989]

I've just added 'pracownice', although mixed-gender 'pracownicy' is much more likely.

'Robotnicy/Robotnice' is associated with manual labour, so we don't accept it as a translation for 'employees'.