Trade unions announce protests on censure motion day

Joi, 10 martie 2011, 15:38 English | Top News

Trains will stand still for two hours on March 16, the day when the Romanian Parliament votes on a censure motion against the current government, as railway trade unions announced a warning strike to mark the event, news agency Agerpres reports. Other trade union organizations announced a major protest before the Parliament as it votes on the motion, with some 50,000 people expected to attend the demonstration.

Trains will stand still across Romania between 7 and 9 a.m. on March 16. The protest is explained by the fact that working contracts at the infrastructure and travel divisions of the Romanian Railways have not been signed yet.

The same day, trade unions will organize a major protest in the Constitution Square in Bucharest starting at noon. Organizers want to show this way that the labor code for which the Romanian government assumed responsibility this month "turns the Romanian employee, whether working in the state or private system, into a slave".

The Romanian government has assumed responsibility over a series of changes of the Labor Code, which the opposition said it opposed. Opposition parties immediately submitted a censure motion which, if passed, would lead to the fall of the Emil Boc Government. But analysts and government officials have insisted that there's no chance the motion will pass.