Government action demanded

Tax cuts and a price freeze are needed to protect workers from the economic crisis, unionists said yesterday.

Jobs in service industries, such as retail and finance, were disappearing daily and not enough was being done to create new ones, they said.

Leung Fu-wah, vice-chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions, said it was not just the working-class affected. 'People from all walks of life have been given a taste of the sour apple as businesses have closed,' he said.

Unionists said when manufacturing industries moved to the mainland the Government did nothing to replace them.

Federation chairman Cheng Yiu-tong said the Government should regulate the economy to ensure it heads in a healthy direction.

It should also develop the technology and information industries and build industrial estates, the unionists said.

They called for tax cuts, a transport fare freeze and the abandoning of the importation of labour.

Provisional legislator Chan Yuen-han, also a vice-chairman of the federation, said: 'The most important thing is to present a message that the Government is going to stand with us to struggle through the hardship.'