Fiji's military regime is facing a growing revolt by the country's unions, with thousands more workers voting to support a strike in defiance of warnings they will be sacked.
The Public Employees Union (PEU), representing almost 5000 blue-collar public servants, has voted to back a strike planned by
the country's largest union, the Public Service Association (PSA).
The PSA voted overwhelmingly on Friday to strike after the military Government slashed civil servants' wages under a plan to save the nation's economy from collapse.
The Fiji Nursing Association and Fiji Teachers Union are also holding ballots about whether to join the planned walkout.
PEU general secretary Pita Delana yesterday said his members would not be intimidated by the military regime's threats to crack down on those who walk off jobs.
He told how he was rounded up by the military last Thursday and taken to a camp, where Fiji's acting military commander, Esala Teleni, warned him not to proceed with industrial action.
"He said, 'If you want to go on strike, tell them to go on strike, but they will never come back to work. They will go for good. And if you go on strike, then we will intervene. We have to stop it'."
Civil servants learned of the plan to slash their wages by 5 per cent when an emergency Budget was handed down this month.
Interim Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry at the time said Fiji's economy was doomed if it continued on its current path.
Fiji's economy has been hurt by international sanctions imposed after last year's December 5 military coup and an associated downturn in tourist arrivals.
But the country's military rulers insisted it was the excesses of the ousted government of Laisenia Qarase - not the takeover - that brought the economy to the brink of ruin.
Delana said May was shaping as the likely month for the public sector strike. Unions must first lodge documents giving 28 days' notice of the walkout.
"Some of our members are angry ... If the Army intervenes, then there will be a confrontation," he said.
"The way we look at it, we have a dictatorship leadership in our country now. They want to implement anything they like."
Delana said workers wanted to avoid a confrontation with the military, but would not back down on demands to have their wages reinstated.
- AAP
