Public sector workers protest in Riga, Vilnius

Apr 02, 2009
TBT Staff in cooperation with BNS

RIGA - Thousands of teachers and education workers have taken to the streets in Riga to protest a government plan to cut financing and slash wages in the sector.

Police estimate that as many as 10,000 people took part in the rally, which began at 2 p.m. and saw protesters march down Terbetes street to the Cabinet of Ministers building on Brivibas.

Leading the march was Chairwoman of the Latvian Education and Science Workers Association Astrida Harbacevica and her deputy, Janis Krastins.

Teachers from all over the country arrived for the event, which remained peaceful throughout. Protesters brandished signs reading "more financing for education and science" and "education and science - Latvia's future," among others.

"Our government is now shortening our salaries by either 20 or 40 percent, and some of our personnel will be fired," said Alexander Elsbergs, a teacher who took part in the march.

"In order to shorten expenses they are going to destroy schools," he said.

In Lithuania, meanwhile, a rally called by the country's police, rescue and border officers near the government building in Vilnius went by peacefully. Demonstrators scattered after leaving in the entryway of the government building an extinguisher and a battering ram, which are to symbolize the miserable situation the country's officers are left in.

The protest rally, which lasted about 20 minutes, involved a few dozen of police, fire-and-rescue, customs and border services.

Lined up next to the monument to Vincas Kudirka in central Vilnius, the officers - some of them barefoot - held slogans saying "I Once Had a Pair of Shoes, Thank You For Taking Both of Them," "Sunset for Officers, Sunrise for the Mafia."

Leaders of national trade unions of officers said that Lithuania was among the few countries of the European Union to drastically cut financing of the interior system.

The protest rally was completed and the participants left after announcement of the nation-wide protest action scheduled for April 25.

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