The introduction by the communist authorities in Poland of price rises on foodstuffs, which they called price regulations for the sake of disguise, often ended in the outbreak of social protests, bloodily suppressed, even with the use of the army, as happened in December 1970, or with the use of militia force in June 1976.<\/p>\n
When, at the beginning of July 1980, the communists introduced price rises on foodstuffs that triggered a wave of short, spontaneous strikes, sometimes lasting several hours, sometimes several days. In addition to economic reasons, the protesters’ demands began to include requests for improved supplies, and better access to health care facilities or educational institutions. In July 1980, the strikes were most extensive in the Lublin region. The communist authorities, wanting to prevent the wave of protests from spreading, were fairly prompt in agreeing to implement the demands.<\/p>\n
In Gda\u0144sk, the strike broke out on 14 August 1980 where Free Trade Unions, independent of the communist regime, were active and popular.\u00a0 Both there and in Gdynia, the protests assumed an almost mass and most organised character. The immediate trigger for the protest action was the disciplinary dismissal of Anna Walentynowicz (1929-2010) on 7 August 1980 from her job at the Lenin Gda\u0144sk Shipyard. As Walentynowicz herself recalled a year later: “I was the drop that overflowed the cup of bitterness”. She added, however: “But I wasn’t the only one, my heroism consisted in the fact that I simply endured, I didn’t give it up. And I was able to endure it all only because the Free Trade Unions of the Coast existed and a group of people helped me to survive.”<\/p>\n
The strike at the Gda\u0144sk Shipyard was initiated by young workers: Bogdan Felski, Jerzy Borowczak and Ludwik Pr\u0105dzy\u0144ski. First thing in the morning on 14 August 1980, the first departments K-1 and K-3 did not start work, and then C-3 and the engine departments joined the protest. At 9 a.m., the protesters organised a rally of workers at the Gdansk Shipyard, announced the strike, and an hour later Lech Wa\u0142\u0119sa appeared at the shipyard taking over as strike leader.<\/p>\n
The first demands addressed to the management of the plant included: the reinstatement of Anna Walentynowicz, Lech Wa\u0142\u0119sa, who had been fired in 1976, Andrzej Ko\u0142odziej and other WZZ activists, the construction of a monument to the victims of December 1970, a pay rise of PLN 2,000 per worker, making family allowances equal to those paid to officers of the security service and a guarantee of security for strikers. The plant management, negotiating with the strikers, agreed to meet only the first three demands. In response, the protesters declared a sit-down strike, and set up a workers’ guard with the task of keeping strangers out of the plant and checking that no one brought alcohol with them.<\/p>\n
On the night of 14\/15 August, a key meeting of WZZ members took place at the shipyard (attended by Bogdan Borusewicz, Andrzej Gwiazda, Lech Wa\u0142\u0119sa and Andrzej Ko\u0142odziej, among others). During it, it was decided to set up a joint strike committee for all striking factories in Gda\u0144sk and Gdynia, and it was agreed that from that time on, negotiations would be conducted with the provincial authorities.<\/p>\n
The next day, i.e. 15 August 1980, workers from other factories joined the strike in solidarity with the Gda\u0144sk Shipyard: Komuna Paryska Shipyard and Nauta Shipyard in Gdynia, the Repair Shipyard and the Northern Shipyard in Gda\u0144sk, as well as Elmor, public transport and many others.<\/p>\n
At that time, negotiations were being conducted at the Gda\u0144sk Shipyard between the Strike Committee, which was expanded with representatives of individual departments, and the plant management. In order to keep the talks fully public, it was decided to broadcast them over the Shipyard radio broadcasting system. The talks resulted in an agreement concluded on 16 August, which provided for pay rises, acceptance of redundant workers, the commemoration of the Victims of 1970, and a guarantee of security for the protesters. In this situation, the Strike Committee by a majority of votes decided to end the strike. Wa\u0142\u0119sa announced this to the strikers after 2 p.m. and they began to leave the Shipyard. The conclusion of the agreement outraged representatives of other work establishments that went on strike in solidarity with the Gda\u0144sk Shipyard. The situation was saved by, among others, Alina Pie\u0144kowska and Anna Walentynowicz, who started to turn back people leaving the shipyard. During the night, representatives of 28 striking factories arrived at the shipyard and an Interfactory Strike Committee (MKS) was set up, headed by Lech Wa\u0142\u0119sa as chairman, with Andrzej Gwiazda and Bogdan Lis as vice-chairmen. On Sunday 17 August, priest Henryk Jankowski in Gdansk and priest Henryk Jastak in Gdynia celebrated masses for the strikers.<\/p>\n
The MKS adopted 21 demands, the fulfilment of which conditioned the end of the strike. The first of these was crucial: “Acceptance of free trade unions independent of parties and employers, resulting from Convention No. 87 of the International Labour Organisation on trade union freedoms ratified by the People’s Republic of Poland”. All the demands were written on boards hung on one of the shipyard gates.<\/p>\n
The communist authorities were forced to negotiate with the strikers. The political elite agreed to most of the demands except the most important one – the establishment of free trade unions. However, the wave of strikes spreading across the country forced the communists to accept this fundamental condition for the strikers. The agreement was signed in the BHP Hall of the Gdansk shipyard in the afternoon of 31 August 1980, and during the night the Inter-Union Strike Committee transformed itself into the Inter-Union Founding Committee of Independent Trade Unions, which gave birth to Solidarity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On 31 August 1980, in the Health and Safety Hall of the Gda\u0144sk Shipyard, representatives of the Polish communist authorities signed an agreement with the striking workers. One of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":27490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history"],"yoast_head":"\n