700,000 Serbs End Strike as Government Approves Overdue Pay

About 700,000 Serbian workers ended a strike Wednesday after the republic’s Communist government accepted their demands for back pay.

The biggest work stoppage Yugoslavia has seen in decades began Tuesday and posed a major challenge to Serbia’s leadership, which is battling with rival republics over Yugoslavia’s fate.

The strikers’ committee announced Wednesday it had formally ended the job action after Serbia’s Parliament approved government promises to come up with back wages, cut taxes and overhaul the social welfare system.

Most strikers--almost a third of the labor force in Yugoslavia’s largest republic--have not been paid for months. Their unions called the strike to demand back pay of minimum wages of around $200 a month.

Negotiations broke down Monday when Dusan Matkovic, Serbia’s industrial minister, said the republic could not meet wage demands because its coffers were virtually empty.

But late Tuesday, the Serbian government settled the walkout in the metal, textile and leather industries after Belgrade TV showed Serbian Premier Dragutin Zelenovic confronting angry strikers.

The government pledged to pay guaranteed wages for January and February by the end of April and to pay subsequent wages by the end of each month. It also agreed to rescind tax laws passed last December and promised to cut taxes on companies by 10% while a new social welfare plan is devised.

Meanwhile, a strike that has grounded the Belgrade-based national airline JAT continued for a seventh day. Flight mechanics, who are demanding higher wages and the firing of airline management, defied threats to take strikers to court.

Also Wednesday, the Croatian Parliament voted overwhelmingly to speed Croatia’s secession from the Yugoslav federation.

The leaders of all six republics are to meet today to discuss Yugoslavia’s future.

The regional leaders have been unable to agree on whether to maintain a central federation--as Serbia wants--or dissolve into a loose association of sovereign states, as advocated by Croatia and Slovenia.