Boycott irks Kremlin

Press, 12 January 1981, Page 8

Boycott irks Kremlin

NZPA-Reuter Moscow The Kremlin ..yesterday signalled its displeasure at the stand of Poland’s independent unions against Saturday work with charges in the Soviet press that their actions would make' the country’s economic- difficulties worse. Tass news agency and Moscow Radio said;f.t&at the Saturday boycott ■of work called by the leadership of the -Solidarity free trade u n-i o n y' amounted . to an appeal for absenteeism Such a course of action would lead to further economic difficulties in Poland and exacerbate the damage to the economy, caused by last summer’s : wave of strikes,. Tass said. The stories were the latest in a. series of gloomy accounts of events in Poland to appear in the . Soviet press and indicate continued deep concern by the Soviet leadership- on Polish developments

The - Soviet 1 press .and. radio said Poland’s economic problems, meant there could-;be only a “gradual-realisation” of the Warsaw Government’s plans to make all Saturdays work-free in the long term. Most Poles appeared to have defied - the:’ Government by not working on Saturday, ignoring last-minute Government ■ warnings that this could further damage the economy. Factories < and large enterprises around the country were: reported at a standstill and in-some places- municipal transport was nunning a Sunday service as workers, risking loss of pay, took a free Saturday. . The unions say the Government.offered a five-day, 40-hour week in the .agreement that ended the summer wave of strikes. They were angered when the Government unilaterally • declared i that only every second Saturday .would be free.

In Warsaw, however, most shops stayed open. A Solidarity ; ’ official -said staff in snfall shops were, more vulnerable .to pressure from management. At- one -.Warsaw • department store, the top two floors where solidarity members, were well entrenched were closed, while the ground floor stayed open. In Gdansk, the stronghold of solidarity, a union official reported that all enterprises and . shops apart . from selected food stores were closed., , ■ ’ Solidarity sources reported yesterday that the first issue of an independent labour weekly, has been published with only minor censorship in the Baltic port of Szczecin and distributed' throughout western Pomerania. Independent unionists won the right to publish their own newspaper as part of (the strike settlement and a (national paper is planned.