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SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Oct. 27 (UPI) More than 3,000 factory workers rallied in downtown Sarajevo Wednesday, demonstrating for better pay and job security.
The protesters represented 45 textile and rubber factories in the Federation the shared Bosnian Muslim-Croat entity.
Meantime, Bosnian railroad workers announced they would go on strike Oct. 30.
The group gathered in front of one of the government buildings in Sarajevo, carrying signs reading: "You are robbing your own people," and "Starvation and idleness are killing us."
The demonstration ended peacefully shortly after it began to rain.
"All we want is a better social program to protect us during the privatization process," the protest leader said.
Government-owned enterprises from the communist era are in the process of being privatized, but the process has been slow and riddled with problems. Many factories were destroyed during the war, and others have out-dated equipment.
In a prepared statement, demonstrators said, "Politicians and ministers shouldn't be surprised if we ask for their removal in the near future."
The rally comes two days after thousands of pensioners, demobilized soldiers and workers staged a protest at the same location, demanding revisions to privatization laws, lower taxes, and the adoption of labor laws.
The economy in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a former Yugoslav republic that declared independence in 1992, was devastated during the resulting 1992- 1995 war. Industrial output remains a fraction of what it was before the war. About 40 percent of Bosnians are unemployed, and in some areas the figure reaches 70 percent.
Bosnia's railroads face problems other than the planned strike, including obstacles caused by the ethnic divisions in the fractured region.
Four years after the Dayton Peace Accords ended the war, only a few trains operate, in large part because officials in Bosnian Croat, Muslim and Serb areas have been unable to strike agreements on train movements through each other's territories.
The peace agreement split the country into two fairly autonomous entities, the Bosnian Serb Republika Srpska and the Federation, which is basically controlled by Bosnian Croats in the west and Bosnian Muslims elsewhere.