Strike-wave in eastern Europe
By Frank Noakes
On the eve of the settlement of a two-week strike by east Germany's engineering union, Romanian and Polish workers are walking out. Thirty thousand Romanian steelworkers began strike action on May 18, with another 60,000 threatening to join them. In Poland a two-week stoppage began early in May and is on the verge of becoming a general strike, called by the Solidarity trade union.
Workers in eastern Germany have settled for pay increases that take their wages to 80% of their western counterparts'; at the time of reunification it was promised this would occur by April 1992. Full wage parity, if employers can be held to the agreement this time, will come in 1996, instead of 1994 as originally agreed. However, some workers remain on strike, opposing the agreement.
Bread prices in Romania have risen 450% since May 1, when price controls were scrapped by the government. Workers there are demanding a 50% pay rise to bring their meagre salaries to about $120 per month. The government was recently forced to increase wages when 6 million workers proposed to down tools.
Polish Prime Minister Hanna Suchocka is claiming that budget restrictions imposed by the International Monetary Fund prevent her acceding to workers' demands for more money. Teachers and health workers have already been on strike for two weeks.