CROATIAN RAIL WORKERS' UNION ANNOUNCES NEW STRIKE FOR SATURDAY

ZAGREB, Dec 27 (Hina) - Croatian railway workers will resume their strike at 10.00 hours on Saturday but will not disrupt traffic in the first days of the strike, the Railway Workers' Union said on Friday. All passenger trains will be running during the New Year holidays, and according to a decision by the transport minister on compulsory services during a strike, strikers are not allowed to stop cargo trains, union leader Zlatko Pavletic told a press conference in Zagreb. Pavletic said that progress had been made in negotiations with Croatian Railways (HZ) management but that no concrete agreements had been reached, so that the strike would begin as scheduled. The strike committee will meet on January 2 to decide on the further operation of passenger trains. The union demands the signing of a collective agreement and an agreement on the payment of wages during a strike. Commenting on the management's announcement that 24 strike organizers would be dismissed from work, Pavletic said that the union would not accept any dismissals. The HZ management said in a statement on Friday that it had begun negotiations with union representatives to reach an agreement and thus avoid the strike. For this reason, negotiations would continue early Saturday morning. The statement went on to say that after negotiations with the union, the management had held a meeting with all rail workers' unions to discuss a collective agreement. The meeting decided that collective negotiations would continue with a view to concluding a collective agreement. (hina) vm jn 271721 MET dec 96