Saturdays, rural protest heat up Polish labor front

Solidarity, the Polish independent union coalition, began a key two-day meeting in Gadansk to discuss strategy in a labor situation grown restive again after a holiday lull. A major issue in the discussion was the question of how many Saturdays a month workers should have off, as well as continuing rural protest.

Meanwhile, protesting farmers in Ustrzyki Dolne, near the Soviet border, broke off talks with a government commission until Stanislaw Ciosek, the government minister in charge of union affairs, arrived. The protesters have been occupying the local government building for more than a week and demanded formation of a government commission to negotiate on a list of other demands, including a halt to police harrassment of private farmers trying to form their own "Rural Solidarity" union.