48 SIGN: TURMOIL Polish labor made many strides during 1980. The Polish government gave Solidarity, the IO-million member independent Polish union , a document legalizing independent unions and the right to strike, a move unprecedented in Eastern Bloc countries. Solidarity, led by Lech Walesa, took advantage of this right and demanded Saturdays off through a nation-wide strike. The government agreed to give the union three out of four Saturdays, and Solidarity ended the strike. RIGHT: UNHAPPY Polish workers participate in a sit-down during a slrike. The uprising lead to an end of Solidarity in the Polish labor system. SIGN: SUFFOCATION I n Las Vegas, the M-G-M Grand Hotel went up in smoke in the second worst fire in American .history, killing 83 people and leaving more than 400 injured. Ironically, few died in the fire itself. The fire never spread beyond the second story. Instead, most suffocated from smoke toxic fumes as they fled to the halls and stairwells. The fire broke out in the kitchen and spread to the nearby casino which had no sprinkler system. It then raced through the casino's "eye in the sky," a concealed catwalk with one-way mirrors with which security men cou ld monitor gambling. In all, 8,000 people were estimated to have been in the M-G-M Hotel when the fire broke out. Questions were raised. Why did the alarm system fail? More importantly, why wasn't a sprinkler required in the casino where the fire started? RIGHT: THE WORLD'S largesl hotel. the MGM Grand HOlel in Las Vegas formed a death trap for eightythree people due to failure in both the sprinkler and alarm systems. World News
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