VILNIUS - When carrying around placards and chanting slogans isn't enough to get the message across, union workers are hoping a little starvation could finally help them make their point.
The Lithuanian Trade Union Federation instituted a hunger strike July 2 against the government's proposal to again cut public sector employee wages. The government had already instituted a 12 percent salary reduction in January as part of its anti-crisis plan.
While the union has reluctantly accepted the January reductions, union representatives said that additional cutbacks will not be acceptable.
"We looked through project of national agreement, but it's not good for unions. They are planning a lot of reductions, even on pensions," Danute Slionskiene, international secretary for the federation, told The Baltic Times.
"We do not agree with that," she said.
The union has set up a tent in Vilnius' Independence Square adjacent to the parliament building, and eight people have taken a 24-hour fast.
"They were ordinary trade union members mostly from the state sector 's policemen, firefighters, one from healthcare," Slionskiene said.
"Two women, six men," she said.
Slionskiene said the decision was made that day and 's despite a lack of previous planning 's the hunger strike achieved its immediate goal. The government agreed to bargain over the cost cutting proposals.
The government is adamant about reducing its budget deficit, though, and when TBT went to press negotiations were ongoing.
"Public sector wages 's teachers, firemen, police 's those are yet to be agreed on the exact principle," Mykolas Majauskas, an advisor to the prime minister, told TBT.
"We'll try to protect those that earn least," he said.
Majauskas said it was not a forgone conclusion that these wages would be dropped.
"I think that it's important to say that we need to have these discussions," he said.
PAN-BALTIC STRIKING
Lithuania is hardly alone in cutting the wages of public employees, as all three Baltic states face large budget deficits.
Latvia has implemented extensive cuts and Estonia may go down the same road as well.
The trade unions of the three Baltic countries have formed a coordination committee to conduct transnational actions if deemed necessary.
"The Estonian Trade Union Federation offered support. Our leaders had a meeting this weekend," Slionskiene said.
"Nobody knows what will be in the future but there will be coordination committee. Now there are no plans to do something," she said.
