Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 28, 1990 TAG: 9005280011
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WARSAW, POLAND LENGTH: Medium
The Solidarity labor union's leader also suggested that Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki might be forced to resign if the protests spread.
A week of sporadic strikes has crippled freight transport to Poland's Baltic coast from the industrial south and Czechoslovakia and Hungary. The army has been called in to move essential shipments.
Walesa held a three-hour meeting with the strikers, who broke off talks with the government in Warsaw a day earlier. The Solidarity labor leader, who himself rose to prominence by leading the strike at the Gdansk shipyard, begged the workers to call off the walkout.
"Please do it for Poland," he said. "We don't want a civil war now, and what's going on now is leading to it."
The new Solidarity government has refused to even discuss the strikers' pay demands. It says they could scuttle the drastic economic reforms under way. Strikers said they will carry out a new stoppage today. The Solidarity railroad union urged members not to participate in the stoppage at midday today. The move is being spearheaded by the OPZZ union, which was formerly backed by the old Communist government.
The strike committee is also calling for a work stoppage on Tuesday evening.
Officials said thousands of the nation's 400,000 railroad workers were striking but could give no specific number. Transport officials have noted that it only takes a few strikers to snarl rail traffic.
The strikers want to raise rail workers' pay to 110 percent of the average national wage of about $79 monthly. They are also seeking the dismissal of railroad directors installed by the former Communist government, whom they say are incompetent and hampering reforms.
Walesa told the strikers the government cannot give in because "there are others waiting in line for strikes."
"The government's concession . . . would be an indication that if one goes on strike, one gets whatever one wants. The prime minister will resign if protests spread," Walesa said.
Mazowiecki repeatedly has voiced sympathy for Poles suffering hardship during the 5-month-old bid to create a market economy from the shattered socialist system.
But the prime minister said there would be no return to the huge government subsidies for unprofitable and inefficient state-run industries, including the railroads.
by CNB