UNION PROTEST DUE TO CRO TELECOMMUNICATIONS PRIVATISATION

ZAGREB, May 19 (Hina) - Commissioners of the Republic Trade Union of Croatian Post and Telecommunications Workers (RSR HPT) on Wednesday gathered in front of the parliament building and on Ban Jelacic Square in downtown Zagreb, giving MPs and citizens papers in which they seek a halt to the urgent privatisation of the Croatian Telecommunications (HT) company. Alongside the written material, the trade unionists "sold" little pieces of telecommunications cables to passers-by, in an attempt to symbolically back their claim that the government was cheaply selling the HT. The RSR HPT called on MPs and political parties to not adopt a bill on HT's privatisation, which envisages the sale of at least 25 percent and one share of the HT to the strategic partner, five percent to HPT workers and pensioners, and five percent, with no compensation, to Croatian veterans. The RSR HPT suggests another privatisation model, according to which 20 percent of HT shares would go Croatian Posts (HP), 30 percent to the Pension Fund, 15 percent to HPT workers and pensioners, 15 percent to veterans, and 20 percent for sale on the international market, but once more favourable conditions occur. The union points out the main goal behind the selling of the HT in unfavourable international conditions is to cover the increasingly bigger cracks in the state budget and the government's poor economic and social policy. All this combined, the union reminds, has betrayed the promises made when a law was passed on the division of the HPT into two separate companies, the HT and the HP. HPT workers were then promised they would not be brought into a more difficult working and social position. RSR HPT president Jadranko Vehar announced the trade union will support a strike which the Trade Union of Post and Telecommunications has announced for next week, also due to dissatisfaction with HT's privatisation model. (hina) ha