RIGA - Unions representing teachers, doctors, nurses and other public workers have joined together to blast the government's budget proposal for 2008, claiming it fails to address their basic needs.
"We will not stay calm. The government will have to think how to fulfill our basic requirements," the deputy chairman of the education and science workers trade union, Janis Krastins, told the Baltic News Service.
He said that the union was prepared to stage a "powerful picket" before next year's proposed budget comes to a vote in Parliament. He said that he expected Riga City Council politicians to support the union's idea and saw no obstacles for the demonstration.
Teachers' wages has been a volatile topic throughout the year, as teachers have threatened to go on strike on numerous occasions 's each strike being narrowly avoided by promises of a wage hike in the near future.
Latvia's economy hit a record 10.1 percent annual inflation in August, with food prices having increased 12 percent. This has frustrated consumers and triggered demands for higher wages.
The medical and social professionals' trade union has its own major picket planned on Sept. 13. Approximately 500 medics were due to meet outside of the Latvian Cabinet of Ministers to protest the government's fiscal policies.
"First we will have a picket, and then if our requirements are not met we will decide on a strike," Valdis Keris, the chairman of the medical and social professionals' trade union, was quoted by BNS as saying.
Keris said that Health Minister Vinets Veldre supports the union's cause and agrees that the salary rise schedule "is unfair."
The union is demanding that medical salaries be equal to two times the average monthly salary by 2009.
In the meantime, the new budget envisages large wage increases for parliamentary workers and staff. The daily Diena reported on Sept. 11 that next year's budget for the Saeima (parliament) will be increased to 15.3 million lats (21.8 million euros), up 3 million from last year. Saeima wages are due to increase by 25 percent, the daily reports.
