Polish Shipyard Strike Appears to Be Crumbling

A Solidarity strike at a shipyard appeared to be crumbling today as the government readied a special powers bill to ban all protests for the rest of the year.

Sources close to the strikers said about half of the 3,000 men in the Lenin Shipyard with Solidarity leader Lech Walesa on Thursday had left by today.

They appeared to have jumped over or slipped through holes in a fence around the yard amid pressure from management, the authorities and police to end the 5-day-old work stoppage and go home.

Sources in Gdansk said the defecting shipyard strikers appeared to be influenced by the government’s tough line and by the lack of support across the country.

Shipyard Under Siege

Management has bombarded the strikers with offers and threats over loudspeakers while a massive cordon of riot police ringed the shipyard, preventing well-wishers from bringing food.

The strikers melted away as the government of Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski prepared to assume special powers to ban strikes and all other protests for the rest of the year.

A bill “concerning the special powers for the Council of Ministers” is being discussed by an advisory Socio-Economic Council to the Sejm (Parliament) before parliamentary debate next week.

According to a draft made available to Reuters, it would grant the government sweeping emergency powers until the end of December to deal with the labor unrest and push through a crucial program of economic reforms.

‘Strikes Banned’

“For the duration of the law’s validity collective disputes are suspended. Strikes, staging of protest actions and all other forms of protest are banned,” the draft said.

“Whoever organizes a strike, protest action or undertakes any other form of protest . . . is subject to up to one year in jail, restriction of liberty or a fine.”

Communist Party Politburo member Mieczyslaw Rakowski told the Socio-Economic Council that the ban on protests is needed to defend government reforms launched last October.

He appeared to indicate that unrest in Poland could also affect the fate of reform policies in the Soviet Union.

‘Severe Blow’ Seen

“Today, organizing strikes and demonstrations of various kinds, whether one likes it or not, is a blow against the economic reforms and the on-going process of democratization of sociopolitical structures, not only in our country,” Rakowski said.