RAIL WORKERS' STRIKE COMMITTEE RESPONDS TO TUDJMAN - STATEMENT

ZAGREB, Feb 25 (Hina) - The Croatian Railway Workers' Union issued a statement Sunday in response to the speech delivered by President Franjo Tudjman at the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Central Committee session on Saturday. The union's Main Strike Committee recalled that the strike (the rail workers were on strike since Thursday) followed "more than a year-lasting negotiations on wages and working conditions." In his message to the rail workers, Tudjman said that there were "many old communists and unionists in their ranks who wanted to bring down the democratic government". Their demand for a 100 percent pay increase proved that the strikers were actually against negotiations and that they wanted to cause a crisis, he added. Stressing the strike had no "political background", the strike committee however recalled that the rail workers were among the first to "establish independent, at that time dissident, independent unions in 1989". "Our only aim is to reach an agreement as soon as possible, as workers with the Croatian Railways Co. cannot feed their families any longer," the statement, signed by head of the strike committee Zlatko Pavletic, said. "In order to reach the agreement the Main Strike Committee is ready for a direct dialogue with the President," it added. (Hina) jn bk 251426 MET feb 96