Several thousand trade union members from four trade union confederations are protesting on Thursday in front of the Cotroceni Presidential Palace, calling on the Presidential Administration to mediate the conflict between trade union organisations and the Government, generated by austerity measures and the refusal to increase the national minimum wage.
The protesters are using vuvuzelas and chanting: 'Thieves!,' 'Resignation!,' 'Down with the Government!,' 'General strike!.'
Participants in the rally have decorated a Christmas tree with messages such as: 'Bolojan Grinch stole our Christmas!,' 'When we come again next year, we want not to find you here!,' 'Austerity is not a solution, but a problem,' 'low wages,' 'higher taxes,' 'higher duties,' 'higher inflation,' 'fewer jobs.'
'Austerity measures are being taken without consulting us, the minimum wage voted yesterday is anti-orthodox, 25 lei less, just out of spite so that it is not like what we proposed and, of course, it applies from 1 July, while prices and VAT have increased. Working conditions are getting worse and worse, both in the private sector and in the public sector. We have seen that they want to cut from parliamentarians and from parties, after for almost half a year they took money from those who truly did not have it. They took from workers, from cooks in hospitals and from employees and labourers who had no connection with these cuts, proof being that the National Institute of Statistics says that the money left as a result of these austerity measures is somewhere around zero,' CNSLR - Fratia president Leonard Barascu told AGERPRES.
Trade union members are also considering a strike as a form of protest if their demands are not solved.
'Things are quite serious and are heading towards a strike. The losses will be significant and even greater during a strike than if they were to meet certain demands for social dialogue, which do not always mean money, and to establish austerity together,' Leonard Barascu added.
The protest includes representatives from the Cartel ALFA National Trade Union Confederation, the National Confederation of Free Trade Unions in Romania - Fratia, the Democratic Trade Union Confederation of Romania and the MERIDIAN National Trade Union Confederation.
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