DOCTORS UNION SEEKS SUPPORT OF POLITICAL PARTIES

ZAGREB, Jan 20 (Hina) - The Croatian Doctors' Union (HLS) is seeking political parties' support for its demands and on Monday the union leadership visited the offices of the opposition's Democratic Centre and the Croatian Christian Democratic Union (HKDU) in a bid to muster backing. #L# The unionists are planning to meet officials of the srongest opposition party - the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) - on Tuesday. The HLS president, Ivica Babic, on Monday called on leading politicians to listen to the HLS demands so that they might be objectively informed about the situation, and added that the union "will not allow the politicisation" of a strike on which physicians are for the sixth day. After his meeting with Babic, DC President Dr. Mate Granic said he "strongly supports" the strike of hospital doctors and called on the Ivica Racan cabinet to urgently consider a compromise proposed by the HLS on a 28-percent rise in doctors' salaries. Babic said a ban on the strike was against the constitution and voiced hope that both the government and the health ministry would call unionists to negotiations. Babic called on doctors to be in their workplaces and do their job in accordance to legal, moral and professional norms. (hina) ms sb