The accord, signed in late August 1980 by government representative Mieczysław Jagielski and strike leader Lech Wałęsa, led to the creation of the trade union Solidarity and was an important milestone towards the eventual end of Communist rule in Poland.
In summer 1980, faced with a major economic crisis, the Polish government authorized a rise in food prices, which immediately led to a wave of strikes and factory occupations across the country.
In the aftermath of the strike, Solidarity emerged as an independent trade union and rapidly grew, ultimately claiming over 10 million members nationwide and establishing itself as a major force in Polish politics.
On 14 December 1970 workers from the Lenin shipyard in Gdańsk began a strike against party headquarters within the city insisting on the formation of independent trade unions.
Fueled by large infusions of Western credit, Poland's economic growth rate was one of the world's highest during the first half of the 1970s, but much of the borrowed capital was misspent and the centrally planned economy was unable to use the new resources effectively.
[4] Led by electrician Lech Wałęsa, the workers took control of the shipyard and demanded labor reform and greater civil rights including the freedom of expression and religion, and the release of political prisoners.
"[7] Other major concerns were to control commercial prices, the use of foreign money in all internal economic dealings, ensuring the proper supply of resources within the nation and only exporting the excess.
Even though it was mainly a labor movement representing workers led by chairman Wałęsa, it attracted an assorted membership of different citizens which quickly rose to unpararelled proportion of a quarter of the country's population: 10 million people nationwide.
Due to its enormous size and newly found power, the union assumed the role of a national reform lobby able to change politics in Poland forever.