CRO RAILWAYS MANAGEMENT AGAIN CALLS STRIKERS TO BACK DOWN

ZAGREB, Nov 30 (Hina) - The Croatian Railways (HZ) Management on Saturday issued a statement saying that a three-day-long strike of Croatian Railway Workers' Union caused huge damage to the Croatian economy. "Strikers are failing to respond to the Management's call to end the strike," said the statement, signed by the Croatian Railways general director Marijan Klaric. Although they were shown that the strike was illegal, the strike organizers were encouraging some members of the Union to resist the Management's demands, as they deliberately misinterpreted decisions by the Management, the Transport Ministry and the Labour Ministry. "The Croatian Railways Management again advises all railway workers in strike that they alone should give up from the strike," the statement added. The Management reiterated that it would continue collective negotiations with all trade unions and not with only one. (Of nine unions within the company, only Railway Workers' union has gone on strike.) The statement said the Croatian Government, the Transport Ministry and the Railways management had informed several times the strikers that "the main strike committee has made such demands that cannot been negotiated about at all..." Failing to respond to the call to cancel the strike, strike organizers still insisted on something that was their first aim: "to cause big disorder and inflict big damage to the (HZ) company and the Croatian economy". Immediate damage in the Croatian Railways is estimated to be 1.6 million kunas daily, whereas consequential damage is impossible to estimate, the Management said in the statement. It added that members of Railways Workers' Union in some areas were against strike, but that they could not put the traffic in operation as they were facing the pressure exerted by the union leaders. (hina) mš 301814 MET nov 96