* Czechs strike in rare labour action
* PM says will not back off, ready to take unpopular steps
PRAGUE, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Czech public sector workers went
on strike against the government's austerity measures on
Wednesday, in a rare strike in the central European country.
Unions have resisted the centre-right government's plans to
cut the public sector wage bill by 10 percent next year, saying
they expected one-sixth of the country's 600,000 public sector
workers to join the one-day strike.
"I want my pay to be at least at the current level, even if
it is not enough," librarian Jan Broum, 35, said in the closed
national library building where many employees had gone on
strike.
"I want the government to find resources somewhere else --
implement progressive taxation, stop wasting public money and do
away with corruption," he told Reuters.
The country's last general strike was in 1989, when millions
of Czechs walked out to protest against the Communist
government, one of the decisive moments in the collapse of
communist rule in the country.
Economists have said this time they do not expect the strike
to have a big economic impact.
The Czech Republic's debt is under 40 percent of gross
domestic product, about half of the EU average but is expected
to rise without reforms. The government wants to cut the public
sector deficit to 4.6 percent of gross domestic product from 5.1
percent expected this year.
Walkouts are very rare in the Czech Republic, where union
membership has shrunk to about 600,000 of 4 million workers.
Czech media reported a number of schools were closed and
some hospitals reduced service, however many workers only
declared support for the strike's aims without stopping work.
A wave of labour protests has swept through Europe as
governments sharply slash spending to calm markets and narrow
budget deficits inflated by the economic crisis.
The unions said they may build up pressure by calling a
general strike at a later date unless the government softens the
plan for job losses and wage cuts.
The cabinet, elected on a programme of cutting the budget
deficit below 3 percent by 2013 and reforming the pension,
health and welfare systems, rejected to climb down on the wage
plan.
"We did not win our mandate to sit and wait until clerks
from international institutions start putting our public sector
finances in order, as is happening in some EU countries," Prime
Minister Petr Necas said on Tuesday.
"We are not afraid of unpopular steps, we are ready to make
them."
(Reporting by Roman Gazdik, Writing by Jan Lopatka; Editing by
Maria Golovnina)
