International media on Romanian public sector strike: Lower than expected attendance

The strike launched by employees in Romania’s public sector is discussed in international media, which commonly note that strike attendance is much lower than trade unions have expected.

While trade unions in the public sector claim success with their strike on Monday – the first day of the protest – attendance amounted to only several tens of thousands of employees, far from the one million that have been expected. Still, the protest movement extended across all public sector, from the penitentiaries to nurses and teachers, all upset about a Government decision to cut salaries and pensions, according to Euronews.

Irish Times reads also reports that tens of thousands of public sector workers entered strike on Monday, but notes that the numbers were far lower than the 700,000 the trade unions expected.

Bloomberg reads about a half-day strike of Bucharest subway employees and recalls the measures that sparked discontent among the people – a 25% cut in state employees’ salaries and a 15% cut of pensions.

The issue was also covered by AFP.