Small Business Czechoslovakia

Merchants and restaurateurs shuttered thousands of state-owned shops across the country Thursday to protest government plans to auction off their workplaces to private owners. The labor action demanding that workers be given preferential conditions to buy into their own firms threatens to escalate and signals a souring of the public mood toward the new democratic government.

Merchants and restaurateurs shuttered thousands of state-owned shops across the country Thursday to protest government plans to auction off their workplaces to private owners. The labor action demanding that workers be given preferential conditions to buy into their own firms threatens to escalate and signals a souring of the public mood toward the new democratic government.