Victory Square Under Siege Again: 15,000 Protesters Demand Premier Boc"s Resignation

• On World Day for Decent Work, trade unions tell Government to quit, threaten to start all-out strike and boycott presidential elections

Over 15,000 members of various trade unions from across the country besieged Victory Square (i.e. Piata Victoriei, the headquarters of the Romanian Government) on Wednesday, demanding that Prime Minister Boc"s Government resign immediately and be replaced with one capable of delivering the country out of the ongoing crisis.

Teaching staff, medical staff, public servants and many other professional categories decided to bury all the divergences that had divided them during the negotiations on the Single Salary Policy Law and wage war on the common enemy, the Government, whom they accused of trying to disunite public employees and causing widespread chaos in the country.

Armed with whistles, drums and banners summarizing their demands for leadership capable of ending the crisis and ensuring decent salaries, members of the trade union confederations CNS Cartel ALFA, BNS, CSDR and CNSRL Fratia demanded to re-negotiate the Single Salary Policy Law with a capable Government. Further demands included a higher minimum wage, no more job cuts and the immediate cancellation of the Government"s plan to keep every public employee unpaid for ten days until the end of 2009 in order to get some of the pressure off the ailing State Budget.

The unions are outraged with the Government"s plan to increase the age of retirement, freeze salaries, increase taxes and, on top of everything, bypass parliamentary debate on the Public Pension Law by taking responsibility for it at the risk of a no-confidence motion.

The protesters said they could take no more and accused politicians of spending the 20 years of transition "stealing everything from the country" and driving the country"s industry and agriculture into bankruptcy. "After you stole everything from this country and destroyed the industry and the agriculture, now you want to starve us by raising the VAT," union leaders told Government members. Protesters then asked the Cabinet to "leave Victory Palace and move to the Antipa Museum (i.e. the Natural Science Museum in Bucharest) because they were "a dying Government representing no one," the size of a football team (i.e. the Cabinet was downsized as Social Democrat ministers resigned and most of the remaining Democrat Liberal ministers were assigned two Ministries each).

Unity was the keyword among the protesters, who warned that tens of thousands of union members would go on an all-out strike unless they found reason and understanding in talks with State authorities.

Union leaders took turns in delivering short speeches accusing the entire political community of sheer lack of interest in public affairs and President Basescu of not having kept to his notorious electoral slogan "Live Well!" The protests remained non-violent throughout the day.

"We are asking the Cabinet to take 700 lei per month each, just to see how long they can survive on that," CNS Cartel ALFA President Bogdan Hossu said. "The Government is keeping salaries very low just to create again another political manoeuvring mass," he added.

Union members are determined to boycott the presidential elections scheduled for November, unless the Government manages to bring reconciliation into the public system.

"If the Government continues to turn a deaf ear to what we have to say, we are prepared to go as far as boycotting the presidential elections," SEDLEX Vice President Razvan Bordeianu said. "If we do not reach reconciliation in the public system, we will definitely turn to extreme means of protest," he added.

One such extreme means of protest would be to pull police forces off ballot station guard duty, as the leaders of the National Police Forces Union announced.

CSDR Vice President Aurel Cornea warned that protests would continue and "take a serious turn" especially considering that the national unemployment headcount could reach 1 million people in the near future, according to trade union estimates.