Prague - Czech labor unions have prepared an ambitious plan to protest against the austerity measures pushed by PM Petr Nečas and his government.
Unions will try to unite all anti-government initiatives in a massive demonstration on April 21, announced the Czech-Moravian Confederation of Labor Unions.
Recently, Europe has seen numerous protests and strikes against austerity measures.
Even the Czech Republic has had its (rather modest) share, above all the massive strike in June 2011.
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The labor union organization says it wants to attract civil initiatives such as ProAlt, which managed to bring thousands to the streets last week. Another ProAlt demonstration will take place later today.
Last Friday, Czech school unions declared a strike alert.
"We want to spearhead all the initiatives that protest against the government reforms," said the labor union's chairman Jaroslav Zavadil to iDNES.cz, a Czech online news server.
Labor unions want the government to stop all reforms and resign. They criticize above all proposed VAT hikes, public sector layoffs, or reduction of pension growth rate.
The government's economy ministers have agreed that the planned budget deficit targets should be met. The government is currently discussing further austerity measures.
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According to Czech labor unions, the government should stop trying to reduce the budget deficit and instead only keep it on the current level. In this way, it could avoid further drastic cuts.
