STRIKE OF SISAK IRONWORKS EMPLOYEES RESUMES

SISAK, July 16 (Hina) - A strikers' committee of the Sisak Ironworks has decided the company's employees will continue the strike which started on July 5 until their demands are met. The strikers have made the discontinuation of the strike conditional on the payment of the difference in the April salary between the minimum wage of 1,350 kuna and the average salary of some 2,400 kuna, which the resigned management did not accept, as well as on the adoption of a final government decision on the company's fate, the Croatian Association of Trade Unions' (HUS) leader Zdenko Mucnjak and HUS' commissioner for the Sisak Ironworks, Ivica Kenda, told reporters on Monday. Mucnjak expects that the "government, since it received a vote of confidence last night, will decide about the company's fate at its next session already." Mucnjak said Vice-Premier Slavko Linic's statement about the situation in the Sisak Ironworks, made at yesterday's parliament session, was "untrue, very irresponsible and unacceptable for the company's employees." By making such a statement Linic has shown that he is not familiar with the situation in the Sisak Ironworks because he said that the wages of the company's workers exceeded 3,000 kuna, whereas in reality the average salary in the company amounts to some 2,400 kuna, Mucnjak said. "Because of his irresponsible and unacceptable statement, HUS will seek Linic's resignation because it believes that such a person does not deserve to hold a senior post in the Croatian government," Mucnjak said, adding HUS would also seek the resignation of Economy Minister Goranko Fizulic. (hina) rml