Walesa to Call Strike if Union Isn’t Legalized

Strikes spread to at least two more coal mines in Poland on Friday, and Solidarity leader Lech Walesa announced that shipyard workers in Gdansk would join striking dock workers and miners Monday if the government refuses to legalize the banned trade union.

Employees at the 30th Anniversary of People’s Poland mine and the Makoszowi mine, both near the Silesian city of Jastrzebie, stopped working Friday, joining workers from five other mines in the area who have gone on strike in the last four days.

Opposition sources said two other mines in the area also were struck, but the claim could not be immediately confirmed. Strikes were also in progress among port workers and bus and tram drivers in the northern port city of Szczecin.

Walesa, who led in the formation of Solidarity in the Lenin Shipyard eight years ago this month, issued his warning to the government at a rally of primarily young shipyard workers in Gdansk. The Polish regime has steadfastly refused to recognize the union since it was outlawed in 1982.

A strike by workers last April and May ended in defeat for the union, and activists went back to work after a 10-day standoff with Polish authorities.

‘Our Common Cause’

The union’s national executive commission later issued a statement calling on members to show “solidarity with the strikers. They are fighting for our common cause.”

“Experience teaches us that only wise social pressure can lead the authorities to the road of economic and social reconstruction,” said the statement, which was read by union activist Jacek Kuron in Warsaw.

The affected coal mines are believed to employ about 25,000 men, although the number of actual strikers involved appears to be much smaller, perhaps as few as 5,000. There are about 70 coal mines in Poland, employing about 460,000 workers.

Production was stopped at the strikebound mines. If the strikes continue to spread throughout the Silesian coal fields, the economic consequences for Poland could be far-reaching.

Poland exports about 20 million tons of coal annually to Western Europe. Those exports bring the country about $1 billion a year, one-fifth of its hard-currency earnings. In addition, Poland also exports coal to Eastern Europe and to the Soviet Union, for which it is paid in rubles and other soft currencies.

Walkouts Called Illegal

The Polish news media have given extensive coverage to the strikes, placing heavy emphasis on economic losses and statements by officials that the walkouts are “illegal.”

On Friday, newspapers carried an appeal from Jan Szlachta, the government minister of coal mines, urging the strikers to return to work.

“We will immediately review all your demands,” Szlachta said. “We will consider all just arguments, and we will jointly take up their realization. This, however, requires peace and self-restraint.”

The continuation of the strikes, he said, “not only makes discussion and agreement difficult but . . . leads to tensions and economic collapse, growing inflation, further devaluation of money and lack of goods.”