The Republika Srpska entity Administration Union, the Internal Affairs Workers Union, the Professional Union of Doctors of Medicine, the Professional Union of Nurses and Technicians, and the Independent Health and Welfare Workers Union announced that they will go on strike on September 29.

The decision was made at the Trade Union Assembly in Banja Luka, and decisions and conclusions were also adopted on the non-fulfilment of the Agreement on salary increases, non-adoption of special collective agreements and other important topics.

The five branch unions have around 55,000 members, and they consider the RS Government, Prime Minister Radovan Viškovic, Finance Minister Zora Vidovic, and mostly the RS President, Milorad Dodik, to be the most responsible ones for the situation.

When asked by the entity public emitter RTRS and entity news agency SRNA, whether individual union members were contacted by foreign embassies in order to offer projects to unions, etc., Bozo Maric, the head of the RS Administration Trade Union answered with a counter-question:

“That's a well-known matrix that’s constantly mentioned, it was already mentioned to me by a Srna journalist, It's rude and deceives the public. These five unions started this strike a year ago and will endure. We also have a doctor, Colonel Ateljevic, with us, who honourably defended the RS. Over ten people are sitting here with us whose parents gave their lives for the RS, so that deserters could accuse us, today, of working for foreign embassies,” Maric said and asked the RTRS journalist how exactly the RTRS and SRNA got the “alleged information,” insinuating that such questions were ordered by someone from the Government.

Most union representatives denied that they ever had any contact with any embassy and the only one who confirmed that he received an invitation from the American embassy was Zeljko Sukalo from the Independent Union of Healthcare Workers.