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 the struggle for workers' rights, we constitute the Initiating Committee of the Free Trading Unions (Komitet Założycielski Wolnych Związków Zawodowych)".
[1] The founders also condemned official, state-subordinated trade unions as a "subordinated instrument for the organized exploitation of all social groups".
[3] The idea of forming independent trade unions was first raised by the striking workers during the coastal cities events in 1970.
[5] 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 the creation of the famous NSZZ Solidarity (Solidarność).