P.M. BRIEFING : E. German Labor Union Formed
Several hundred East German workers at an electronics plant outside East Berlin have formed the Communist nation’s first independent labor union, a spokesman said today.
Roelf Boerger said the union’s platform includes a demand for the right to strike, and he urged all 6,000 employees of the Wilhelm Pieck factory in Teltow to join the new labor movement. He said the union’s name is “Reform.”
Boerger’s statement was distributed to Western news media in West Berlin.
Despite a more candid approach to news reporting in recent days, the state-run ADN news agency made no immediate mention of the electronics workers’ declaration.
Boerger said the union declares solidarity with new opposition political groups in East Germany and calls for a thorough restructuring of the Communist state’s economy.
The new leadership’s attitude toward the Reform trade group was not immediately made clear. The factory where it was founded is named after East Germany’s first president.
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