BELGRADE UNIONS ATTACK YUGOSLAV PAY FREEZE
Belgrade trade union leaders have
joined attacks on a controversial wage freeze in Yugoslavia and
reported strikes spreading to the capital.
    Miodrag Lazarevic, president of the Belgrade trade unions
council, said the government must take responsibility for the
effects of the law imposing the wage freeze.
    Under the law, which was enacted on February 27 and will
remain in force until July 1, wage levels of the last quarter
of 1986 were reimposed and future pay rises were pegged to
productivity. The move has caused resentment and widespread
industrial unrest throughout the country.
    Another Belgrade trade union council leader, Predrag
Petrovic, was quoted as saying hundreds of workers had been on
strike in Belgrade.
    Yugoslav trade unions are an integral part of the communist
political system and their role has traditionally not been to
defend workers from the government. The criticisms by the
Belgrade union leaders indicated wider trade union resentment
of the law than earlier reported.
    The government has officially reported 70 strikes
throughout the country, although Yugoslav newspapers have
indicated there have been more.
 REUTER
