TRADE UNION OFFICIAL URGES GOVT TO LISTEN TO WORKERS' DEMANDS

ZAGREB, May 1 (Hina) - The president of the Association of Workers' Trade Unions of Croatia (URSH), Boris Kunst, on Saturday addressed the Croatian government during the marking of Labour Day in Maksimir Park, one of the largest in the capital. Kunst urged the government to "desist from manipulating with trade unions and finally realise there is no step forward for Croatia without increased employment, a rehabilitated economic and banking system, the prevention of corruption, violence, and crime, and the establishment of social dialogue." He asserted the government persisted in turning a deaf ear to unions' warnings and Croatian workers' demands, thus showing, he added, that it was unaware of the increasingly big question mark hanging above its future. "The misery we have been thrown into was not our choice, nor our dream, so those who arranged it for us can only dream that we will elect them again to govern our fate," Kunst said. Commenting on the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Croatia protest taking place at Maksimir Park, Kunst said the park was not an adequate protest location. Nobody managed to scare and send the URSH to a park last February, when it organised the biggest workers' demonstrations in Zagreb and Croatia and tried to hold them at Zagreb's central square, but was prevented from doing so by the police, Kunst said. "Nobody will scare us either when we next assess it is time for a mass protest on Ban Jelacic square," he concluded. (hina) ha