JUNE 9, 1998

P R E S S  R E V I E W

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In addition to the two main stories -- the mid-air collision of two Czech air force jets over a densely populated residential area of Ceske Budejovice, and yesterday's warning strike by public sector employees, the national papers of course carry a lot of staff on the upcoming early parliamentary elections, which are now only 10 days away.

Angry people outside closed public offices and people trapped on roads blocked by maintenance crews. These, according to ZEMSKE NOVINY, are the only tangible outcomes of yesterday's token strike. There could not possibly be any other results, the paper writes. It wonders what normally functioning government would accept demands for such a sweeping wage increase. Trade union bosses must have been acutely aware of the futility of their demands, and yet they issued a battle cry. Main opposition Social Democrats leader Milos Zeman inadvertently revealed the political character of this labour action last Friday, by declaring that the unions' demands mesh well with the election programme of his party.

According to MLADA FRONTA DNES, no democratic society has the right to deny its working people the right to strike. But yesterday's one-hour walkout clearly backfired against the protesters. The paper thinks the public sector workers have over- reacted and it was unfair of them to press for a pay-rise so shortly before the Czechs go to the polls. MLADA FRONTA DNES believes that this strike was against a right-wing government and in favour of the left wing. But no matter who becomes prime minister after the June 19 and 20 vote, he or she will not back down to unrealistic demands. The road to higher wages for civil servants in a poor country leads through a higher labour productivity, motivation, and unavoidable lay-offs, the paper concludes.

PRAVO argues that wages in the public sector are very low and predicts that more labour action might follow. Although PRAVO admits that the Czech state does not have the money to effect any meaningful improvement in their situation, it points out that the striking personnel may rightly ask why, in spite of its dire financial straits, the government has spent a fortune on bailing out non-profitable banks. Civil servants have sent a clear signal to the next government that it will have to start sorting out quite a lot of problems, PRAVO opines.

And finally, SLOVO focuses on one particular category of public sector employees -- namely, road repair and maintenance workers. After years of unfulfilled expectations, it writes, these people are in a very radical mood. Yesterday's blockade of many important motorways and road junctions demonstrated that strike action in this field may be far more effective than on railways, SLOVO cautions. 

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