CROATIAN RAILWAY WORKERS STOP TRAFFIC FOR TWO HOURS

ZAGREB, April 7 (Hina) - Between 10 am and noon on Wednesday, Croatian railway workers stopped railway traffic protesting against the failure of the Croatian Railways (HZ) Management to accept their request for a 17.5 per cent salary rise. Railway traffic has been normalising gradually since noon. HZ workers today staged a rally before the HZ Directorate in Zagreb, announcing even more drastic measures should the management continue to ignore their request. During this morning's talks with representatives of five railway unions, the HZ management offered a three per cent rise as of April 1, and another three per cent increase as of July 1, under the condition that this year's holiday allowance be paid next year. "That's just transferring money from one pocket to the other, with them taking from us more than giving us", the president of the HZ Infrastructure Union Darko Pavicevic said. "Since living costs have increased more than 20 per cent since the last salary rise, we want the Management to know that there will be no agreement without a two-digit salary increase", Pavicevic told some 300 union members who gathered in front of the HZ Directorate. The HZ Management and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Traffic and Communications are only thinking about cancelling railway lines and cutting the number of workers, instead of providing more work for the HZ, Pavicevic said. "Today's two-hour stoppage of traffic is only the beginning, next time there will be a lot more of us and we will stop traffic for a much longer period", Pavicevic said. (hina) jn rml