Heads of education and health unions said at a press conference on Thursday that the turnout to a one-day strike against the government's austerity measures in the public-sector services was high with at least 70 thousand employees joining the strike.
"Nurses and medical technicians are striking too," said their union leader Anica Prasnjak, adding that the majority of nurses were on strike except those who needed to be on duty to attend to vital services.
Union heads said that the government should respect today's strike which was a sign of the strength of unions in the public sector but more so because of the support shown by industrial unions.
Unions organised the strike in response to the government cancelling the Basic Collective Agreement (TKU) for public servants which will abolish allowances and in fact reduce salaries.
The majority of schools in the country are not working.
Minister of Science, Education and Sports Zeljko Jovanovic said that he respected the right of unions to strike but that today's strike was unnecessary as negotiations over the TKU were still underway.
