WORLD IN BRIEF : SOVIET UNION : Metalworkers May Join Miners’ Strike

Labor unrest spread in the Soviet Union, with metallurgy workers threatening to join an anti-Kremlin miners’ strike. In the republic of Georgia, secessionist rail workers tightened their stranglehold on cargo traffic, increasing pressure on Mikhail S. Gorbachev. In an effort to stem the strikes, the embattled Soviet president issued a decree giving officials of the republics and local governments one week to resume deliveries of raw materials and other goods from their regions. He did not say what would happen if the decree is ignored.