Word: gdansk
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...fundamental human rights." However, the Pontiff also counseled moderation, and praised the workers for their maturity "against the background of terror . . . which does not spare the lives of innocent men." The meeting concluded with an exchange of gifts. Walesa gave the Pope a ship model made by the Gdansk shipworkers and a replica of the recently constructed monument to the slain workers of the 1970 Baltic seaport MSA riots. The Pope presented Walesa and his wife with rosaries and a signed photograph of himself...
...most ominous dispute, Solidarity's national commission passed a defiant resolution calling for a five-day week by declaring Saturday a nonworking day. Since most Poles are usually required to work a six-day week, this was a provocative departure. Several union locals, representing shipyard workers in Gdansk and Gdynia, coal miners in Silesia, and most of the 16,000 workers at the giant Ursus tractor factory outside Warsaw, threatened to force the demand by not showing up for work on Saturday. The Ministry of Labor, Wages and Social Affairs responded by instructing factory managers to dock...
...Saturday crisis" grew out of the Gdansk and Jastrzebie agreements that ended last summer's widespread strikes, in which the government agreed to end all Saturday work. At the end of last month, however, the government cited the country's deepening economic crisis and announced that for the time being it could not give all workers all Saturdays off. Instead, the government said that it hoped to increase gradually the present number of free Saturdays (there were 14 in 1980) until 1985, when the five-day week would become generalized. As a start, the government would nearly double...
...issue of the five-day week but also censorship disputes, including the right of Solidarity to publish its own newspaper and of theaters to screen a documentary about the summer strikes. The fact that Jagielski, the regime's top-ranking Deputy Premier, who had personally negotiated the Gdansk accord, had been suddenly called in to replace a lower-ranking official for the talks showed the serious ness of the new labor-government face-off. Walesa and Jagielski were closeted in the low. gray stone building of the Council of Ministers for six hours...
When Walesa returned to Gdansk to report to Solidarity's national commission during its two-day meeting, his account of the Warsaw talks was cautiously pessimistic. "They are trying to dismantle us quietly," he said. "We must realize that Solidarity is a thorn in the government's side." The Solidarity delegates, in accordance with the summer agreements, proclaimed their call for a five-day work week and warned against any attempt to compensate by wage reductions or loss of other holidays. The resolution did leave the government an out, however, by declaring that the union leadership would listen...