Word: gierek
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...mounting wave of labor unrest started eight weeks ago with a series of scattered strikes protesting a sudden rise in meat prices, which have been kept artificially low by costly government subsidies. Shunning the brutal crackdown that had caused Gomulka's downfall, the government of Party Boss Edward Gierek had already granted some $117 million to other strikers during the first wave of protest. It refused, however, to roll back the price of meat. The situation took a dramatic turn two weeks ago, when 16,000 employees of the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk suddenly walked off the job and seized...
Work stoppages also broke out at the massive Nowa Huta steel complex, near Cracow. There were even reports of strike activity in the mining region of Silesia, Gierek's birthplace and political stronghold. At the Gdansk shipyard, which remained the nerve center of the Baltic upheaval, workers set up a central committee that claimed to represent the striking factories and enterprises along the coast...
Returning from a two-week trip to the Soviet Union, Gierek tried desperately to defuse the suddenly explosive situation. He canceled a scheduled summit meeting with West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt,* and sent a task force to negotiate with the strikers in Gdansk. But the regime shrewdly insisted on talking to workers from individual factories, rejecting any dealings with the Interfactory Strike Committee based at the Lenin Shipyard. "They do not represent the workers," explained a Polish government spokesman in Warsaw. Added a party official in Gdansk: "We want each factory to settle individually...
...government team made little headway; in a tacit admission of failure, Gierek abruptly replaced Tadeusz Pyka as chief negotiator with Deputy Premier Mieczyslaw Jagielski, a seasoned and effective bargainer. It was Jagielski who ultimately abandoned the divide-and-conquer approach, and met personally with a Strike Committee delegation?to the cheers of the picketing workers...
Apart from flying and trucking reinforcements into the Baltic area, Gierek made no show of armed force. Instead, he appealed for reason and moderation in a 25-minute radio and television address to the nation. He made it clear that many of the strikers' demands were unacceptable. "Strikes will not change things for the better," Gierek said. "They only multiply difficulties." With characteristic frankness, the former miner admitted to "mistakes in economic policy" and a "lack of progress in the organization of production and the life of the community." He promised reforms, such as higher pay, increased meat supplies, more...