Trade Unions in Serbia Threaten to Go On Strike

Trade unions threatened to go on strike, escalating daily demonstrations against Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic that drew a crowd of 150,000 Saturday. And Milosevic reportedly won court victories in some of the contested elections that prompted the protests.

A union strike could significantly strengthen the 3-week-old protests against the Serbian president.

Leaders of two independent unions said their members were ready to strike this week if Milosevic does not reinstate the opposition’s Nov. 17 local election victories. They also demanded that the government ensure decent standards of living.

Individual workers have taken part in the protests, but organized labor--divided more or less equally between independent unions and government-organized unions backing Milosevic--has not so far.

The Supreme Court late Saturday night handed Milosevic victories in at least some of those challenged elections, an official of the opposition coalition said.

The coalition had asked the court to overturn government action annulling vote results in 46 municipal districts where coalition candidates posted victories.

The court late Saturday issued rulings in five of those cases, rejecting demands to dismiss the annulments, said Milica Nedeljkovic, a coalition observer at Belgrade’s Electoral Commission.

She said in an interview over independent Radio B-92 that results of the first five decisions had been delivered to the commission.

The commission tentatively set a news conference for today, apparently to formally announce the court decisions. There were unconfirmed reports that the court had decided in favor of Milosevic in all 46 municipal races.