Protests (against austerity program) grow in Romania

[Hannah Bell]

The latest protests began on March 15. One hundred sixty schools in the Buzau region closed their doors, leaving about 50,000 pupils on leave. The teachers are disgruntled by the massive redundancies, the failure to pay promised wage increases, the reduction of 15,000 jobs this year, insufficient funding planned for education in 2010 and the increased retirement age demanded by the government. On top of failing to receive their promised salary increases, teachers have also faced a 30 percent cut in salary since February of this year...

Popular anger has also been fuelled by the extra costs now being charged for health care. Many Romanians are no longer able to afford the additional costs for visits to the doctor or hospital.,,

At the same time pensioners are continuing their protests. They are demanding free medical treatment, access to treatment facilities, and the maintenance of current retirement ages. At the same time, the national council of the National Federation of Pensioners decided to sue the government for failure to observe Law 250/2007, according to which the value of the pension equals 45 percent of the gross average wage...

Bucharest was also paralysed on April 1 by a spontaneous strike of the city’s 4,500 public transport workers, cancelling the 2.7 million trips made daily by means of surface transport. The primary reasons for the strike were decreasing salaries and the failure of management to pay a seasonal bonus...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/may2010/roma-m08.shtml