POLISH RULERS FACE OBSTACLES IN PARLIAMENT

August 11, 1989

Poland's Communist rulers were dealt a blow Wednesday when a leader of a traditionally allied party said it would join Solidarity in voting against a Communist-led government and the union announced strike plans. Solidarity leaders in the Baltic region of Gdansk said they would stage a one-hour stoppage in 470 factories today to protest food price hikes of up to 500 percent imposed last week.

The strike would be the largest coordinated industrial protest since almost all food subsidies were lifted Aug. 1. In Warsaw, the parliamentary leader of the United Peasants' Party, Ryutaro Bentkowski, said his deputies would vote against Prime Minister Czeslaw Kiszczak when he presented a Cabinet to parliament in two weeks' time.