Railway workers’ union leader Iulian Mantescu told MEDIAFAX Thursday railway employees won’t halt work Monday, when about half a million state employees in schools and public institutions go on strike indefinitely in protest to the Government’s spending cut measures. Other state employees in healthcare, transports, the penitentiary system and even some in the private sector will also be on strike Monday, out of solidarity.
„We’ve seen the draft law and we are not affected because we’ve already cut wages 14-26% in the past years and we’ve lowered staff numbers,” Mantescu said.
The union leader said union members are currently being polled and will decide whether or not railway workers would go on a solidarity strike.
Romania’s Government will seek a confidence vote in Parliament to adopt two laws lowering public sector wages and cutting pensions, in a move to bring the budget deficit to 6.8% of GDP under the terms of a EUR20 billion IMF-led rescue loan agreed last year.