At the end of August 1980, the communist authorities in Poland were forced to sign agreements with committees representing tens of thousands of striking workers. These concessions by the authorities triggered a rise of the Solidarity trade union. However, before the protests that took place in coastal Poland and in Silesia, a month earlier in July 1980, a wave of strikes began in Świdnik and swept across the Lublin region.

Świdnik was a town near Lublin, with a population of.30,000 inhabitants in 1980. Most of them were professionally linked to Communication Equipment Manufacturing Plant PZL (WSK PZL) Świdnik, a factory producing helicopters and motorbikes. The strike at the plant broke out completely unexpectedly for the authorities on 8 July 1980. Theoretically, it was caused by a rise in the price of meals in the plant canteen, which is why it was colloquially accepted that the workers’ protest “began with a meat chop” as its price rose by 60%. However, this was only the proverbial spark. The actual causes of the protest were far broader. According to the workers, the authorities did not take into account their social needs, there was a poor organisation of work, and the workers also demanded depriving the communist party activists, the apparatus of power and functionaries of privileges in access to luxury and rationed goods unavailable to the majority of the population.

Despite a lot of pressure from the authorities, at noon on 8 July 1980, i.e. 3 hours after the start of the protest, 3,000 workers were already on strike at WSK PZL out of a total of 9,000 employees. As a result of the protesters’ resistance, the communist authorities were forced to negotiate. The talks took place on 11 July 1980.  The parties ended the strike by signing an agreement providing workers with pay rises and improving supply of shops in Świdnik. The authorities also promised not to impose consequences on the strikers. Other demands were to be met gradually.

The Świdnik strike marked the beginning of a wave of protests in the Lublin region, known as the Lublin July 1980. About 40,000 workers from over 150 factories took part. Although the communist authorities tried to hide the fact of the mass protests from the rest of the country, they became a prelude to the strikes of August 1980, which gave birth to the “Solidarity” movement.