PULA: MILITARY UNION SAYS PILOTS AREN'T STRIKING

PULA, Jan 24 (Hina) - The president of a recently established military union, Colonel Ljubo Cerovac, said on Friday that there was no pilot strike in the Croatian Air Forces, but that pilots were dissatisfied with unpaid flying bonuses and decreased wages. #L# Cerovac told a news conference that the best way of protecting the rights of Croatian Armed Forces members was through the military union. He expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that the Croatian military union had not yet received an answer from the government and Defence Ministry regarding its motion that a regulation under which active soldiers are banned from establishing a union be erased from the law on military service. He said the union would file a lawsuit before the Constitutional Court. According to the union leader, this is contrary to the Croatian Constitution which says "that forming a union in armed and police forces can be restricted". The Croatian military union was formed in October 2002 in the northern Adriatic town of Pula, when it was initiated that Article 11 of the Law on Military Service, under which active military members are banned from organising in a union, be revoked. (hina) it sb