Strikes Romania

This nation's biggest trade union has renewed a threat to call for a general strike if the ruling National Salvation Front fails to meet its demands. The National Confederative Union said in a statement published Tuesday in the Romania Libera newspaper that it would call its 3 million members out on strike Thursday unless demands for pay raises, better working conditions and a revision of market-economy reforms are met.

Mobs of striking coal miners stormed through police lines Thursday, attacking riot troops with clubs and homemade explosives. Dozens of police were taken hostage and one was reported killed as the miners refused to stop their march on the capital. More than 130 people were injured and up to 50 police kidnapped in the fierce assault as 7,000 miners overran government roadblocks on a central highway leading to Bucharest.

Mobs of striking coal miners stormed through police lines Thursday, attacking riot troops with clubs and homemade explosives. Dozens of police were taken hostage and one was reported killed as the miners refused to stop their march on the capital. More than 130 people were injured and up to 50 police kidnapped in the fierce assault as 7,000 miners overran government roadblocks on a central highway leading to Bucharest.

This nation's biggest trade union has renewed a threat to call for a general strike if the ruling National Salvation Front fails to meet its demands. The National Confederative Union said in a statement published Tuesday in the Romania Libera newspaper that it would call its 3 million members out on strike Thursday unless demands for pay raises, better working conditions and a revision of market-economy reforms are met.