Skopje, 2 June 2022 (MIA) — After Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia representatives and government officials’ wage rise negotiations broke off without an agreement to increase workers’ salaries by Mden 2,806, union leader Darko Dimovski announced a nationwide strike following the two-hour talks on Thursday. Dimovski said he was disappointed with the talks held with government officials, who, as he pointed out, “had an answer for everything except for what’s matters most“ – the demanded raise of Mden 2,806 for workers. “We demand an immediate wage increase,” Dimovski said. “Price shocks and double-digit inflation give us the right to demand pay adjustments immediately, because we can’t take this anymore,” he added. He announced that the highest bodies of the Federation of Trade Unions would meet Friday and were expected to organize a nationwide strike. Union representatives had requested a meeting with the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and the Ministers of Finance and Labor and Social Policy after seeing that the revised budget did not allot any funding for their pay increases, which they say they were promised during previous negotiations. In addition, the Federation of Trade Unions, which initiated the legal procedure to declare Sunday a non-working day, does not agree with the latest proposed legal amendments suggesting that Sunday should be a working day in tourist places. mr/