To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Polish Solidarność movement, trade union leaders met Pope Francis in the Vatican in Rome.
The ETUC-affiliated union, launched by Lech Walesa and others in 1980 at the former Lenin Shipyards in Gdańsk, became the first independent labour union in a Soviet country. The Pontiff recalled that throughout the 1980s it not only achieved political and social change in Poland but also inspired others outside the country’s borders.
“I congratulate you,” said Pope Francis, “on your service for the common good.” Solidarity, he added, “is a sensitivity to the voices of brothers and sisters who have been deprived of the right to decent working conditions, to the just rewards necessary to support the family, to health care or to rest.”