Czech unions call day-long public transport strike on June 13

Public transport in Prague, Brno and other towns will stop working on Monday, 03:00 and trains will stop operating nationwide.

Blockades of main roads, including in Prague, are planned as well, the organisers said.

It is not clear how many employees may join the strike.

The organisers presented the strike as limited in time, but they did not say when exactly it will end.

"The day has 24 hours," they said.

The unions want the centre-right coalition government to scrap its draft health care and pension reforms and preserve employees´ benefits threatened with abolition.

"The government has forced us into striking," Engine drivers´ federation head Jindrich Hlas said, citing a KDOS official statement.

In the statement the unions write that the government is reluctant to explain why its reforms rest in nothing but spending cuts, why it fails to prevent money wasting and to effectively combat corruption.

The unions say the government´s plans are unjust and harmful to a majority of population.

They say the KDOS had exhausted all chances for negotiations.

The KDOS is supported by both of the country´s biggest umbrella unions.

The Bohemian and Moravian Unions´ Confederation (CMKOS) has gone on strike alert in connection with the upcoming public transport strike, its chairman Jaroslav Zavadil said.

The Independent Unions´ Association (ASO) plans transport blockades in this connection, said ASO head Bohumir Dufek.

KDOS leaders said public transport will stop in the two biggest cities, Prague and Brno, while unions in other towns, such as Usti nad Labem, north Bohemia, Plzen, West Bohemia and Olomouc, north Moravia, are discussing joining the strike.

Blockades are to afflict the traffic on main roads in Prague and elsewhere.

Trains will stop operating nationwide, Transport Union head Lubos Pomajbik said.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz