Word: lech
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Union Leader Lech Walesa at first hailed the agreement as "the greatest success we have achieved so far." Solidarity's militants, however, felt that the union had given up far more than the government-notably by agreeing to work every fourth Saturday. In effect, that abrogated a guarantee of work-free Saturdays, which the government had promised in last summer's historic strike settlement. Solidarity's national commission wrangled for eleven hours before voting to accept the pact, which the final union communiqué coldly described as "falling far short of expectations...
...summer's unrest. The wildcat protests threatened to destroy Solidarity's hard-won unity and shatter the delicate detente between the union and the state. "We must stop all the strikes so that the government can say that Solidarity has the situation under control," warned Union Leader Lech Walesa. "We must concentrate on basic issues. There is a fire in the country...
...failed to carry out a number of promises contained in the historic agreements signed last summer not only in Gdansk, but also in Szczecin and Jastrzebie. Among them were pledges to increase Solidarity's access to the press, free political prisoners and reduce censorship. As Union Leader Lech Walesa put it to a throng of followers last week: "Let's not fight for local goals. Let's fight for wider goals. We will not go back one step...
...bring about any improvement in Poland's troubled economy, the government must first win the trust of a cynical and disgruntled public. This is obviously no easy task, but there seemed to be some grounds for compromise. Before his departure for Rome last week. Solidarity Leader Lech Walesa told reporters: "We do not want a strike and will be looking for better solutions." Another spokesman for the unions described the boycott of Saturday work this way: "Not as a confrontation, but as a first stage leading to an agreement...
Under a wintry Italian sky, a gray-suited and solemn Lech Walesa, his wife Miroslawa and a 13-member delegation from Solidarity strode across the Vatican's stone-paved Court of San Damaso to the Apostolic Palace. For the occasion, the Swiss Guards had donned their red-plumed metal helmets, an honor usually reserved for visiting heads of state. The helmets attested to the special significance that the Vatican attached to last week's meeting between the leader of Solidarity and his Pope and countryman, John Paul II, formerly Karol Cardinal Wojtyla of Cracow...