The World - News from April 26, 1988

The first strike by an official Polish labor union halted public transportation in the industrial city of Bydgoszcz for more than 12 hours before authorities granted the workers a 63% pay raise. The strike by transport workers in the city and in the nearby town of Inowroclaw was the first to cause major disruption in a Polish city since the Communist government imposed martial law in December, 1981, and suspended the unsanctioned Solidarity union. The stoppage was led by bus driver Krzysztof Wojt, a Communist Party member and chairman of the local branch of Poland’s official transport workers union, who described it as a protest rather than a strike.