EU unions rally in Ljubljana demanding pay hikes
LJUBLJANA (AFP) — Thousands of trade union members from across Europe marched Saturday in central Ljubljana at a rally demanding higher wages and better conditions for workers.
Police said some 10,000 people and organisers said around 35,000 people participated in the march which paralysed traffic in the city centre for over three hours.
"We want decent minimal wages, we want equality between men and women, an end to speculation and equal rights and pay for migrant workers," European Trade Union Confederation chief John Monks told a crowd waving flags and balloons.
Workers from most of the EU member states plus Croatia, Russia and other European states had arrived in Ljubljana by plane, bus or train and crowded the streets of the Slovenian capital bearing banners calling for a pay hike.
Slogans such as "we demand a pay raise," or "higher wages in Europe," or "we want higher purchasing power" appeared on banners borne by the marchers as they snaked towards the centre along Ljubljana's main Slovenska avenue.
ETUC called the demonstration in Slovenia, currently holding the rotating EU presidency, to send a strong message to EU finance ministers and central bankers as they met nearby in Brdo pri Kranju at what was once the holiday residence of former Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito.
"We are in town to send a message to the ministers and central bankers and to European society: that European workers need a pay rise and a fair deal, a proper share of the fruits of prosperity and the fruits of growth," Monks said after meeting Slovenia's Prime Minister Janez Jansa before the demonstration.
Jansa said the demands were justified and warned that since 2000 the share of wages in the EU's gross domestic product (GDP) has decreased by 1.6 percentage points.
"Although that still is not a dramatic drop, it reflects a trend that calls for action," Jansa said, adding that Slovenia would transmit the message from Saturday's demonstrations to the EU institutions.
"We're here to show that the purchasing power problem is a real European problem," said Claude Rolin, secretary general of Belgian union CSC.
He said that the unions also wanted "to tell the finance ministers and (Jean-Claude) Trichet, the boss of the European Central Bank, that it's not workers who should pay the price of the crisis we are seeing."
Eurozone finance chiefs have warned that demands for significant wage hikes could fuel a dangerous inflation spiral.
Inflation in the 15 eurozone countries jumped in March to 3.5 percent -- the highest level since the bloc was formed in 1999, according to official EU data last Monday.
In the face of such inflation, eurozone officials say that wage demands should not exceed growth in workers' productivity.
"According to our policy line, the wage increases should be based on productivity increases," EU Economics and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia told journalists here.
"This is a way not to put at risk inflation targets and to accompany from this point of view sustainable growth," he added.
Nevertheless, Almunia, himself a former trade union economist, said: "I can understand very well the demands of the unions."
After the march culminated with speeches in a central square, the crowd dispersed as many demonstrators left to sit in the bars or coffee shops in the surrounding streets.
Among the numerous tourists in central Ljubljana, commissioner Almunia also walked through the centre a couple of streets away from the square where the demonstration took place.
