BUCHAREST, Romania -- A general strike called to protest recent price rises fizzled out Wednesday as inter-union squabbling and fears of unemployment kept almost all of the country's 10 million population at their jobs.
Labor unions had planned to bring the country to a standstill to protest price hikes after government subsidies on basic foodstuffs were removed May 1.
However, two of the country's biggest trade unions, Alfa and CNSLR, said they would postpone their planned strike for 48 hours. Both are currently locked in talks with Prime Minister Nicolae Vacaroiu.
Pockets of labor unrest around the country were reported by local newspapers: a strike by subway workers in Bucharest entered its third day, thousands of state truck drivers and health workers walked out and some dockworkers were off the job.
A general strike as planned by the unions would have paralyzed industry and cost 56 billion lei ($91 million) a day according to finance ministry figures, causing the most widespread industrial unrest since the depression of the 1920s.
But squabbling among the unions, fears of unemployment and the belief that the government does not have the money to meet workers' demands led most people to work instead.
'Prices have gone up enormously. I need more than twice my salary just to survive but the government has no funds to give us this,' said Marcel Vintila, one of the dentist union leaders, explaining why his union would never strike.
Bread prices have risen 450 percent to 90 lei (15 cents) since subsidies were slashed May 1. Most other consumer prices have doubled as part of economic reforms agreed to with the International Monetary Fund, but many Romanians seem resigned about the hardships caused by attempts to create a market system out of a centrally-planned economy.
'These new prices are crippling us but I will not go strike because it could destabilize the country,' said Cecilia Ionescu, a 35-year-old accountant at a state-owned company as she stood in line for vegetables at one of a handful of private markets in central Bucharest.
Ionescu currently earns 30,000 lei ($49), but under an agreement struck after tense negotiations between the government and union leaders late Tuesday, a minimum salary of 30,000 lei has been set and other salaries are due to be indexed in line with price increases.
