Russian State Workers Rally For Higher Wages

20 October 2004 -- Russian teachers and other state employees are staging a warning strike and are attending rallies across the country today.

The president of Russia's non-industrial labor unions, Mikhail Kuzmenko, said nearly 1 million workers planned to stage a warning strike, while about 3 million workers were expected to take part in public rallies.

In one of the largest demonstrations in Russia's Far East, about 3,000 workers attended a rally in the Pacific port of Vladivostok.

In Moscow, strikers gathered near the Russian government headquarters for a rally that was expected to last most of the day.

State-employed doctors, teachers, and cultural workers are demanding a 50 percent increase this year on monthly wages, which currently average about $100 a month.

(AFP/AP/ITAR-TASS)