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19-570: Free Trade Unions may refer to: Free Trade Unions of the Coast , a Polish labor union Free Trade Unions (Germany) , a German labor organization Free Trade Union , a British organization Free Trade Unions (Bulgaria) , a Bulgarian labor organization Free Trade Unions (Poland) , a German trade unions in Poland, based in the former Prussian territories that were ceded to Poland Topics referred to by

38-598: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Free Trade Unions of the Coast This trade union was founded in Gdańsk on 29 April 1978 by Andrzej Gwiazda , Krzysztof Wyszkowski and Antoni Sokołowski. The choice of the date was not accidental: the founders issued a declaration that "today, on the eve of the May Day , the holiday symbolizing for more than eighty years

57-555: The blue-collar worker . This elite ruling class owned or largely controlled the police, media and industry of the state, including the state-organized unions. Insufficient pay and food shortages, in addition to a growing movement in favor of independent union activism led to strikes in 1956 and 1970 which left hundreds of workers dead from clashes with police, and both the 1970 and 1976 strikes ended with some concessions but subsequent additional repressions from management. Workers were increasingly dissatisfied with their standard of living and

76-462: The coastal cities events in 1970. Free Trade Unions of the Coast were a non-governmental organization , independently defending citizen's and workers rights to create organizations free from control from the state and working towards restoring democratic controls in Poland. It had its own underground biweekly newspaper ( bibuła ), Robotnik Wybrzeża (Worker of the Coast). By the summer of 1980

95-669: The Free Trade Unions of the Coast drawing support from ROPCiO and KOR, became the stronghold of the free trade union movement in Poland. Free Trade Unions organized the strike in Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk in August 1980, and were instrumental in the creation of Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee ( Międzyzakładowy Komitet Strajkowy ), whose 21 demands led to the signing of the Gdańsk Agreement and eventually to

114-629: The Gdańsk-Sopot-Gdynia area, coordinating action and maintaining and order to ensure the safety of the strikers. Lech Wałęsa , an electrician who had lost his job at the Gdańsk Shipyard in the strikes of 1976 was elected as chair of the MKS, while the remainder of the committee was composed of delegates from other facilities including Bogdan Lis , Andrzej Gwiazda , and others. By August 18, the MKS represented workers from 156 separate enterprises, and

133-466: The coastal ' Tricity ' area. They were one of several free trade unions founded in Poland in the late 1970s (others were founded in Katowice , Radom and Szczecin ). The Free Trade Unions of the Coast were likely the most significant trade union in Poland before the advent of NSZZ Solidarity ( Solidarność ). The idea of forming independent trade unions was first raised by the striking workers during

152-538: The creation of the famous NSZZ Solidarity ( Solidarność ). Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee 54°22′23.956″N 18°39′39.358″E  /  54.37332111°N 18.66093278°E  / 54.37332111; 18.66093278 Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee (or Inter-Factory Strike Committee , Polish : Międzyzakładowy Komitet Strajkowy , MKS) was an action strike committee formed in Gdańsk Shipyard , People's Republic of Poland on 16 August 1980. It

171-467: The first time to unify and strengthen the movement, coordinating strikes all across Poland. It was for this reason that the government of Edward Gierek found they could no longer buy off strikers with small concessions, and finally had to settle into heavy negotiations with the MKS. On the day that the committee was formed, August 17, MKS posted a handwritten list of twenty-one demands in the shipyard. These demands were far broader and all-encompassing that

190-475: The half-hearted responses of the government to their calls for social justice, and when in July 1980 the government attempted to raise the price of meat even further, sit-in strikes started up again. When, in August 1980, Anna Walentynowicz lost her job at the Gdańsk Shipyard because of her position as editor of the underground newspaper Robotnik Wybrzeze , her fellow workers took action. Around 16,000 employees of

209-689: The low standard of living of blue-collar citizens. After weeks of negotiations with Wałęsa and his MKS, the Communist party first secretary Edward Gierek was forced to accede to all twenty-one of the strikers' demands, signing the Gdańsk Agreement on August 31, which allowed workers the right to strike and organise independent unions. With the signing of the Gdańsk Agreement on August 31, delegates from MKS – representing 3500 separate enterprises and 3 million workers, intellectuals and students – met in Gdańsk. The Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee, which had become

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228-612: The number was steadily growing. Just two days after the formation of MKS the Polish economy was brought to a standstill as workers struck at factories and ports all along the Baltic coast. By August 21, much of the country was affected by strikes, even including the inland mines of the Upper Silesian Industrial Area , as more and more workers joined independent unions. The Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee at Gdańsk

247-437: The original postulates of the Gdańsk strikers, pushing for free trade unions and the legal right to strike, an end to the repression of independent activists, improvement of health care services, and the increased availability of basic consumer goods and foodstuffs, amongst other things. In these demands, the workers were calling on the government to protect the constitutional rights of the Polish people, and take steps to improve

266-430: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Free Trade Unions . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Free_Trade_Unions&oldid=879640719 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

285-433: The shipyard discontinued their work and occupied its premises on the morning of August 14, demanding Walentynowicz's re-employment, the erection of a monument in honor of the victims of the strikes of 1970, and a pay rise of 2000 zlotys, amongst other things. After negotiating with management and having most of their demands met, a vote was taken on August 16 leading to the strike being called off. By this time, however, many of

304-552: The struggle for workers' rights, we constitute the Initiating Committee of the Free Trading Unions ( Komitet Założycielski Wolnych Związków Zawodowych )". The founders also condemned official, state-subordinated trade unions as a "subordinated instrument for the organized exploitation of all social groups". Free Trade Unions of the Coast were not a national organization and organized workers only from

323-507: The workers at facilities surrounding the Gdańsk Shipyard had begun their own strikes making similar demands, and it was decided that in solidarity with them, the workers in the shipyard would continue to strike despite their own demands having been met. By the next morning the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee (Polish shorthand: MKS ) had been formed within the gates of the shipyard, intending to unite workers in

342-411: Was becoming the national center for trade union movement: a phenomenon which was itself unique to this series of events. In the strikes of the 1950s and '70s it was the lack of a central organized structure that had limited the mobilization potential of striking workers. Now the MKS had been specifically designed with this problem in mind - the decentralization of the workers' movement – and was working for

361-445: Was led by Lech Wałęsa and others and is famous for issuing the 21 demands of MKS on 17 August, that eventually led to the Gdańsk Agreement and creation of Solidarity . The widespread strikes of 1980 were far from being the first clashes between the ruling party and the working class in Poland after World War II . Despite having a "socialist" government, the elite of the Polish ruling class averaged an income twenty times that of

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