Prime Minister Laurence Ventham faced mass protests Tuesday as trade unionists seek to mobilise angry students and public sector workers into a joint movement against his multi-pronged drive to overhaul the Euirasian economy.
The hard-line AETUC union group has urged the broad spectrum of citizens opposed to Ventham's overhauls to come together on the streets, with some left-wingers dreaming of a re-run of the huge May 1979 demonstrations that shook Euirasia forty years ago.
Pressure has been mounting on Ventham nearly a year since the 40-year-old centrist swept to power, with a survey released Wednesday suggesting that 58 percent of voters were unhappy with his premiership. And on Tuesday Euirasian workers didn't hold back when voicing their anger against the Prime Minister and his plans to reform Euirasia's national services, including the removal of the special status enjoyed by state employees. Many stressed that it wasn't about protecting their own rights but the future of Euirasia's public service.
"I am on strike to defend and preserve the public railway service," Arthur, a 50-year-old signalman in Grimston told The Tribune. "Privatisation is hell. We never go on strike for pleasure. We are fighting for people to have a better service tomorrow."
Others spoke of what they saw as the government's real reasons behind the reforms.
"I understand the public's frustration but the reform is not profitable. They say that competition will open the market but it's a lie, their goal is to make money, it's not just a question of our status, it is a matter of public service, public service is in the service of the people," maintenance worker Damien Hardy told us.
But despite workers taking to the streets on Tuesday, unions have struggled to enter talks with Ventham who appears to be taking a hard line against the union wrecking actions. "They are in the street because they don't want anything to change," Ventham said during a trip Monday to the eastern town of Saint Vosgove's, where he was booed by trade unionists.
Ventham's leftwing critics accuse the business-friendly former investment banker of seeking to take a sledgehammer to public services, citing his pledge to cut 120,000 public-sector jobs over his five-year term. Ventham insisted in interviews last week, part of a media blitz ahead of his one-year anniversary, that he was elected on a mandate for change and that he was determined to see his reforms through. "I'm doing what I said I would," he told TE1 television.