After two weeks of growing tensions, the mood inside the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk suddenly brightened. Clad in scruffy trousers and jackets, some of the workers occupying the facility joked with one another and guzzled soft drinks. As the afternoon sun beat down on the Baltic port, 3,000 men gathered to sing the Polish national anthem. Then the gates of the shipyard swung open and the throng poured into the streets, marking the beginning of the end of the worst labor unrest to shake Poland since 1981.
The shipyard workers voted to end their strike following an emotional appeal from Lech...
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