Freedom deal signed

Press, 4 September 1980, Page 1

Freedom deal signed

NZPA . Warsaw . - The 'striking Polish, coal miners and other' workers in the-Vital Silesian industrial heartland signed - an agreement with the Government yesterday ending their dispute and granting the right to free trade unions. The accord was the third td be signed between striking workers and the Polish authorities during the present dabdur unrest,. . ; Previously shipyard workers : in:the: Baltic signed -agreements, . giving them, among other things .‘the. right to form, trade unions free"; of political control. - j -The strikes in ? Silesia were finally called off by the miners late on Tuesday evening. ‘ :: .• : V The official back-to-work

day was set for today, though, enterprises wanting to ■ resume' yesterday could do SO. ' ■’..: / * ’ " _ The strikers, in .Silesia, Poland’s vital coal and steel belt, had drawn in 31 coal mines, about half the total in ~the provinces, and more than* 300,000 workers. The .agreement was signed by the head of the Governmentdelegation, ;the. deputy ‘ Prime Minister, Mr Alezsander Kopek, and; the chairman of the strike committee Mr jaroslaw Sienkiewicz. A member of the Govem,ment delegation, the Com;muriist Party Central Committee Secretary, Mr Andrzej .Zadinski,. said: “De-, spite difficulties both sides shared good will.” ■But he added - that the

realisation ■ of the miners* demands would cost the country- dearly, a reference to vital lost ..production since the first miners went on strike on August 28. Mr Kopek described the signing as a “historic act” and said one of their common tasks was to develop socialist democracy in Polish enterprises. Apart from new trade unions the agreement gives mines the right to change the present four-shift system. It also, grants, miners higher family allowances and special pay for unpleasant work, as well as promising more meat supplies. It also gives the miners and . other members of the inter-factory strike committee free Saturdays from next year.

On Monday the police re-, leased the dissident labourer Mr. Marek • Kozlowski, whose freedom was 'demanded by Baltic port strikers before they-agreed to end their walkout on Sunday dissident sources said. , . ‘ ' Mr Kozlowski was reportedly jailed several months, ago after being tried and convicted on charges of thievery. The Government released five Government critics on Sunday and another 30. on Monday, sources said. The workers in Gdansk demanded that the Government release the dissidents who had been arrested while trying to help them.The strikers also specifically called for Mr Kozlowski’s release. ■ . . ; ,