Worker Power

Strikes force concessions

Poland's Communist rulers wisely came to terms some time ago with the nation's fiercely independent and outspoken Catholic Church. They have also learned to live with an agricultural system that, unlike the Soviet model, leaves 75% of the country's farms in private hands. Last week, under pressure from a wave of peaceful but illegal strikes in factories across the country, Party Leader Edward Gierek seemed to be heading toward another ideological compromise: de facto recognition of an amorphous independent trade-union movement.

The most recent Polish workers' strikes erupted after the government announced on July 2 that an increased portion of the nation's meat supply, mostly the better cuts, would be sold in special stores at prices that are often double those in regular butchershops. When Polish workers get angry, the regime has learned to take them seriously. Ten years ago, the government used force to halt strikes in the Baltic ports against high food prices. The ensuing bloodshed--hundreds of workers were killed--led to the downfall of Party Chief Wladyslaw Gomulka. Gierek, who replaced him, prudently called off another attempt to raise meat prices four years ago. This time Gierek has chosen to defuse the confrontation by granting wage increases of up to 15%, while maintaining the higher meat prices.

Since early July, workers in 68 enterprises have walked off the job. The most dramatic protest occurred in Lublin (pop. 300,000), where railway and other transport workers brought the southeastern city to a standstill for three days. The army had to be called in to deliver milk and bread. Instead of resorting to force, local party leaders used wall posters to appeal for a return to order. Among the pleas was a Politburo warning that the strikes "could awaken the concern of our neighbors"--a thinly veiled reference to the possibility of Soviet intervention.

What finally brought Lublin's workers back to their jobs was the offer of a wage increase of about $20 per month. Similar raises were granted in virtually all the enterprises hit by strikes. More significant, the workers won the regime's promise not to retaliate against strike leaders. Even as the Lublin walkout ended, other strikes were bursting out: at the Stalowa Wola steel mill about 50 miles south of Lublin, among transport workers in Chelm 40 miles to the east, among newspaper deliverymen in Warsaw, at an agricultural machinery plant in Wroclaw. The strikes came in the midst of an economic crisis that could compel the regime to impose further austerity. If it does, there are few signs that the people will go along.

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