Organizers of Gdansk Walkout Fired in Poland

Leaders of a one-day strike were fired Wednesday for organizing the walkout to protest a government decision to close Lenin Shipyard, the birthplace of the Solidarity union, state media reported.

The announcement came hours after about 100 youths straggled out of the Wisla shipyard and a repair yard, ending their protests at the request of Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, who argued that there was “no other path than reconciliation.”

Walesa said he will wait at least until next spring before launching a new Solidarity offensive against Poland’s Communist rulers.

The state-run PAP news agency said the director of the repair yard “sacked the inspirators of the strike action” at the 4,500-worker yard.

The report did not mention firings at the 1,000-worker Wisla shipyard.

The firings seemed to signal that authorities are taking a tough line against strikes.

The strikers, mostly young radical workers, gave up only 24 hours after they launched defiant strike action when Walesa backed off from calling a nationwide strike alert.

“Carrying on would have been like fighting tanks,” strike leader Wojciech Buczynski said as he led a band of 70 disappointed strikers from the repair yard--the last of 500 workers who walked out.

They were demanding re-legalization of Solidarity and cancellation of a government decision to close the giant Lenin shipyard--cradle of the independent trade union and a major symbol of opposition to Communist rule.

Walesa told a news conference that Solidarity will fight the Lenin yard’s closure, which the government calls final and irrevocable and a first step toward streamlining Polish industry.

“If there are no solutions by the spring, we will launch a major offensive,” Walesa said.

Solidarity and the government are locked in disputes about conditions for proposed round-table talks, which originally were scheduled to start Oct. 17.