Global General

Romanian protest against wage cut

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-05-19 21:47

BUCHAREST - Tens of thousands of workers on Wednesday staged Romania's largest-ever demonstration in recent years to protest newly unveiled government austerity measures.

More than 60,000 union members, who came from all over the country and represented all professional categories, gathered in front of government headquarters to protest planned government wage cuts meant to bolster the country's struggling economy.

The demonstrators were protesting a 25-percent cut in public sector wages, a 15-percent cut in pensions and unemployment benefits, the curtailing of child and child rearing allowances by 15 percent, and the trimming of the wages of employees of state-owned companies.

The cuts were included in a letter of intent to the International Monetary Fund for the fifth tranche of a 20 billion-euro ($25 billion) IMF-led loan.

The five largest trade union confederations -- the Cartel Alfa National Trade Union Confederation, the Fratia National Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Romania, the National Trade Union Bloc and the Meridian National Trade Union Confederation -- called the cuts unacceptable.

The confederations argued that the government is burdening only the poorest social categories with its solutions to take Romania out of the ongoing crisis. They claimed, too,that the government refuses to change its administrative style and was not proposing any solutions that would truly ease the crisis.

The confederations' main proposals as a counteroffer to the official austerity program include cutting the wages pool by 25 percent for each ministry, including downsizing to two the offices of state secretaries at each ministry; cutting spending on the state apparatus; freezing pensions at their current level; and taxing wages according to income brackets.

Confederation leaders are demanding that a new letter of intent be drawn up for the IMF that would include their amendments.

The union leaders urged Romanian leaders to not turn a blind eye to the protests, warning that "we are urging the government to step down if it cannot negotiate another letter of intent with the IMF."