Word: tractor
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...plants. In Warsaw, red-and-white Polish flags fluttered defiantly over idle buses and streetcars as drivers joined workers from some 60 local factories and offices in a related half-day stoppage. On the outskirts of Bydgoszcz, 140 miles northwest of the capital, police turned back columns of angry tractor drivers who were seeking to stage a demonstration in the middle of the town. The snowballing protest climaxed on Saturday, when millions of workers observed a nationwide job boycott ordered by Solidarity, the independent union federation. Across Poland last week, workers once again served notice that they would bitterly resist...
...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 the pay of workers who did not report on Saturday. In turn, Solidarity warned that "sanctions" against workers, specifically...
...shuttle that is to orbit at speeds up to 17,500 m.p.h. was trundled to its lift off site on a massive crawler-tractor that took 7½ hours to creep the 3½ miles from the Kennedy Space Center's immense Vehicle Assembly Building. NASA's delight could be detected as far away as Houston. There, a technician watching the proceedings on television at the Johnson Space Center exclaimed what many felt: "Hey! This is for real! We're back to launching birds again." It has been a long time between shots...
...machinist at the Ursus tractor factory, twelve miles outside Warsaw. Although both have joined Solidarity, they could not be regarded as dissidents or malcontents. Says Krzysztof: "One shouldn't complain too much. I enjoy my work." Maria points out that a decade ago they were far worse off, living in a single attic room that they had obtained only by agreeing to care for their elderly landlady. Since then, Maria has gone to work to supplement the family income, which now totals 15,000 zloty a month ($500). The factory helped them get a three-room apartment on Ursus...
...bread, coffee, tea or milk), and gives them coupons redeemable at the factory for 3.2 lbs. of meat per worker each month for about two-thirds of what it costs, when available, at the butcher shops. But when Maria gets off work after an eight-hour day finishing steel tractor parts, she must stand in the interminable queues at the neighborhood supermarket. Half an hour alone is wasted waiting in line for the obligatory shopping basket she must use for purchases. Always poorly stocked, the supermarket has been virtually stripped bare during the holiday season; even eggs have become...