Prague - It appears that in June, health sector reforms proposed by minister Tomáš Julínek will meet the most intense protests, so far.
Czech health care unions announced that on June 24, all hospitals in the country will be on strike.
In addition, they will be supported by a one-hour token strike of all major unions, organized by the Bohemian-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions.
"We will strike against all irreversible steps of the government's planned reform. And most of them are planned for the health care sector," assured the confederation's spokeswoman Jana Kašparová.
First general strike since 1989
The last one-hour general strike that Czechs had witnessed took place in November 1989 and was linked to the fall of the communist regime.
Unlike workers in other sectors, healthcare employees plan to strike all day.
"We will opt for a standard routine. We will offer acute care services, but all surgeries that can be delayed will be rescheduled. It will depend on local circumstances," explained head of healthcare unions Jiří Schlanger.
Schlanger stressed that the strike will not be aimed at either the patients or the employers.
Read more: One hundred thousand Czech teachers go on strike
Prague public transport to freeze
"If the government will not comprise with us, we can arrange another strike that would last longer," warned Schlanger.
It is already clear that on June 24 there will be no bus, tram and probably even metro transportation running in the capital. Other cities are considering joining the protest too.
However, a "horror" scenario of cities helplessly blocked by a flood of pedestrians and cars is not to expected. In Prague, daily transport routes will most likely be affected only from 12 AM to 1 PM.
Railway unions join the bandwagon
It is likely that in the same period, it will not be possible to travel by train either.
"Trains will not be running," assured Jaroslav Pejša from railway unions.
The details of the strike will be discussed by the union's chairmans in the beginning of June. Most likely, after 12 AM all trains will stop on the first station and resume on their way after one hour.
So far, the Czech Railways have not reacted to the trade unionists' plan, since they were not officially informed about it yet.
"We don't know if it will be a symbolic or a real protest. We don't know whether passengers will be affected by it. It would be premature to make conclusions," Czech Railways' spokesman Ondřej Kubala explained to Aktuálně.cz.
So far, tens of trade unions have declared their plan to join the strike, including unions that represent workers of individual transport enterprises.
This morning, the Constituional Court announced its decision that the section of the personal finance reform that concerns health care, including co-payments for doctor visits and perscriptions, is constitutional. It is not clear how this decision will affect the planned strike.
