People rally in Riga demand more funding for health care, education

Around 3,000 people gathered in Cathedral Square in Riga Old City on Sunday morning, demanding more funding for the health and education sectors.

Participants arrived at the event with trade unions' flags and posters deriding the government's health care policy.

Union representatives were distributing baseball caps and T-shirts with symbols of the trade unions.

The rally, organized by the Latvian Confederation of Free Trade Unions, took place peacefully.

Peteris Krigers, the leader of the unions' confederation, and Inga Vanaga, the leader of the teachers' trade union, addressed the crowd, slamming the government's current policies and calling for raising wages for medics and teachers.

Krigers warned that the pressing issues, inaccessibility of health care services, low wages of medics, teachers and police officers, are putting Latvia's national security in danger.

Latvia has lost 25 percent of its labor force and many young people continue to emigrate to other countries, the union leader said.

"Latvia is bleeding and it has to be stopped," Krigers said.

"Together we can do it, we just need to tell our lawmakers that although our love for our state is endless, it is not blind," Krigers said.

The trade unions staged the May 1 rally with the motto "For decent work to healthy and educated people in Latvia" in order to draw authorities' attention to issues in areas like health care, education, culture and national security.

Valdis Keris, the leader of the medics' trade union, voiced hope earlier that the rally will not go unnoticed by politicians and that they will revise Latvia's health care budget after all.

If that does not happen, though, the trade union might express non-confidence in Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis, he said. Endit