SERBIAN TRADE UNIONS POINT TO DIRE SITUATION

NOVI SAD, May 1 (Hina) - Hundreds of workers from the "Independence" trade union rallied in Novi Sad on Thursday to mark International Labour Day and express dissatisfaction with the current economic and social situation in Serbia. #L# "Independence" president Branislav Canak announced workers' protests, strikes, and demonstrations in the autumn if the Serbian government continued to ignore workers' demands. "There are no investments in Serbia because domestic capital was spent in (former President Slobodan) Milosevic's time or siphoned into criminal spheres. There is no foreign capital either because there is complete uncertainty, both in the economic and the political sense. Foreign capital won't be forthcoming for some time yet and reforms aren't possible without it," Canak told the media. He dismissed complaints that workers in Serbia lacked initiative in the privatisation and transition process and were waiting for the government to resolve all their problems. Stressing that unemployment was constantly rising, Canak said that "it is virtually impossible to find a job in Serbia, and when one finds it, those are usually very uncertain jobs where workers depend solely on the employer's arbitrariness". (hina) ha