Gdańsk Agreement

Background

In the summer of 1980 Poland faced an economic crisis driven by foreign debt and rising prices; when the government authorised an increase in food prices, strikes and factory occupations spread across the country. On 14 August workers at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk struck after Anna Walentynowicz was sacked five months before her retirement, and the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee (MKS) headed by Wałęsa submitted 21 demands to the government. Drawing on the lesson of 1956 Poznań and the 1970 coastal strikes, which scattered and were bought off without a central coordinating body, the demands were presented as a single common programme rather than workplace grievances.

Negotiation and provisions

The government delegation and the MKS delegation concluded their talks with a signature at the shipyard on 31 August. The first provision was the right to form trade unions independent of the party and of enterprises, invoking International Labour Organization Convention No. 87, which the Polish government had ratified. Further provisions covered the right to strike and protection for strikers, freedom of speech, the press and independent publishing, the restoration of rights to those dismissed after the 1970 and 1976 strikes, the release of political prisoners, media access to information about the MKS, strike pay, a 2,000-złoty base-pay increase, automatic pay indexation, food supply with exports limited to surpluses, the abolition of 'commercial' prices and hard-currency shops, appointment of managers by qualification rather than party membership, retirement at 50 for women and 55 for men, three years' paid maternity leave, and free Saturdays.

Outcome and reversal

Solidarity registered officially on 10 November 1980, and as its founding committees merged into one national organisation on 17 September its membership reached 10 million by September 1981, one third of the country's working-age population. In December 1981, however, the Jaruzelski government imposed martial law and tried to destroy the union through several years of repression; Solidarity went underground with substantial support from the Vatican and the United States. Because the movement survived, the 1989 round table talks and the country's first pluralistic election followed, and by the end of August a Solidarity-led coalition government was formed.