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Healthcare, transit worker stoppage looms

Unions threaten strike over pension reforms

By Michael Heitmann
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
June 18th, 2008 issue

Public transportation workers across the Czech Republic are threatening a one-hour strike June 24 that would leave the country with reduced train, bus and metro services.
The threat is part of a nationwide strike warning made by the trade unions, aimed at protecting a pension system that offers them special privileges. Despite repeated demonstrations, the government has pledged to continue with its pension reform plans.
Since March, the Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions (ČMKOS), the umbrella organization for several unions, has been on a strike alert in protest of the reforms. The ČMKOS is pushing for a general strike by asking both healthcare and transport workers to cease work come June 24.
“We will offer acute care services, but all surgeries that can be delayed will be rescheduled,” said Jiří Schlanger, the healthcare union’s head.
Jan Rejský, who heads the Trade Union of Czech and Moravian Workers in Transportation, Road Maintenance and Automotive Repair (OS DOSIA), said there are more than 10,000 union members among public transit workers, mainly in regional capitals. But, with some smaller groups voting to abstain from the strike, the unions are risking an embarrassing display of disunity.
“Probably more than half of them will join the strike. The opposition against the reforms is quite large,” Rejský told journalists. He expected nonunion members to join the strike as well.
The situation on the ground is more complicated in Prague, however, where metro, bus and tram drivers can choose between a host of specialized labor organizations.
Oldřich Schneider, who heads DOSIA’s public transportation section, confirmed that metro drivers would not stop vehicles. “Metro drivers don’t want to endanger the passengers’ safety,” Schneider said.
This followed a threat by Luboš Olejár, the leader of another union that counts transit workers among its members.
“The metro trains will stop,” Olejár said. “The metro stations will be closed.”
The Prague Public Transit Company (DPP) refused to comment on the union’s actions ahead of the strike. “We are waiting for an official announcement by the unions,” spokesman Ondřej Pečený said. “We haven’t received any clear information yet,” he added.
Unionized railway engineers will join the one-hour warning strike, their vice chairman, Jaroslav Pejša, announced June 9. Railway workers want to be classified as a special profession, which would allow them to retire earlier.
The controversial pension reform, pushed by the Civic Democrats, will increase the retirement age for public and private sector employees to 65 by the year 2030. Previously, workers in jobs deemed physically demanding could retire as early as 50 years of age.
The one-hour warning strike is the biggest test so far for the government’s reform package. Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek has said he will press ahead with the reforms, as he considers the unions too closely tied to the main opposition party, the Social Democrats (ČSSD).
Topolánek pointed out that Milan Štěch, the leader of the ČMKOS, is a senator for the ČSSD and is seeking re-election this autumn. This is the main reason why the unions have become more radicalized, several government ministers say.
ČSSD Chairman Jiří Paroubek supports the unions’ protests. He went on record as saying that the government’s draft pension reform is “an example of political shortsightedness that will enter history.”
Union representatives have warned more strikes could follow the June 24 protest, however it unfolds.

Michael Heitmann can be reached at mheitmann@praguepost.com


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