Poles Reject Big Pay Hike, Continue Strike

Thousands of striking steelworkers today rejected a big pay raise and held out for more money, and Solidarity leader Lech Walesa called for nationwide pressure on authorities to improve the economy.

The widening strike, in its second day at the sprawling Lenin steel mill outside Krakow, was the biggest industrial action in Poland since the 1981 crackdown on the now-outlawed Solidarity trade union, and it posed the sharpest challenge yet to government economic reform policies.

Another strike was threatened Friday at the 18,000-worker Stalowa Wola heavy machinery plant in southeast Poland, and the government prepared to enter talks Thursday with transit workers’ representatives seeking higher pay.

In a mood of accelerating demands, striking steel workers called on the government to double the $15 compensation paid for recent price increases to large groups of society, including industrial workers, retirees, teachers and health workers.

Strikers also demanded an immediate 50% raise on the average $105 monthly pay to the steel plant’s 32,000 workers, and turned down a management offer of $50 in phased-in raises this year.

‘Firmly Rejected’

The strike committee “firmly rejected” the offer that was broadcast over loudspeakers to the workers today in a bid to break the strike, said Jacek Kuron, a Solidarity adviser in Warsaw.

Organizers said 12,000 workers are on strike at the mill, with many staying at the site after their shifts. Government spokesman Jerzy Urban said the number is 2,000.

Walesa lent his support to the strikers in a statement issued from his home in Gdansk.

“Our union appeals to all living social forces . . . for the undertaking of united actions to put pressure on the authorities,” he said. “Millions of people are waiting for restoration of the rights of their trade union, Solidarity.”