The head of the Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions (ČMKP), Josef Strshedul, has said that the Czech Republic is set to hold the largest ever nationwide trade union strike on 27 November.
Josef Strshedul said that the largest strike in the whole Czech Republic is planned for 27 November. According to the head of the Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions, the protest movement will involve associations of firms and hundreds of companies, numbering approximately 1 million people, and will be joined by the staff of 70 per cent of school institutions.
“According to the information we have, the strike scheduled for 27 November will be the largest protest action ever held in the Czech Republic. About 1 million employees of companies and firms, as well as 70 per cent of the staff of primary and secondary schools, intend to take part. The aim of the strike is to make the government of the republic think about what is happening in society. If they (ministers – ed.) think that such an action can be brushed aside or ignored, then the mood in society may become even worse,” the trade union leader said on the eve of the large-scale strike.
The head of the largest trade union association in the Czech Republic emphasised that the situation would have been better for everyone if such events had not been necessary.
“But the situation is such that people are outraged by the current state of affairs, they believe that the authorities do not hear them, so hundreds of thousands of workers are ready to support our protest,” Strshedul summarised.
The main dissatisfaction of the trade unions is that the Czech parliament recently passed a package, which was signed by the Czech president, aimed at restoring public finances. This set of legislative initiatives involves the cancellation of a number of tax exemptions, reduction of state subsidies, transformation of pension payment criteria and other serious measures. According to the opposition and trade union movements of the country, such changes will make the standard of living lower, mark inflation and negatively affect the economic performance of the Republic.
The PMKP head stressed that the members of the government are reluctant to make social contact with the trade unions. According to the leader of the social movement, dialogue should help to highlight the existing problems and find ways of their compromise solution.
The leader of the Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions said that public associations had proposed adjustments to the government package that had been adopted. The public association specified that serious amendments to 9 items were proposed, but the Czech cabinet members agreed to dialogue only “about two and a half of them”. According to Strshedula, this is not enough.
We shall remind you that earlier Russian President Vladimir Putin criticised the attempts of the European Union countries to completely abandon Russian energy carriers, while the entire Western economy is at “ground zero”.