Irish trade unions have agreed to call off a fresh public sector strike on Thursday against planned spending cuts in next week"s budget for 2010, Reuters quoted Prime Minister Brian Cowen as saying today. Up to 250,000 nurses, teachers and other public workers held a one-day strike last week over government plans to cut the public sector pay bill by 1.3 billion euros in the Dec. 9 budget and they had threatened a second day of action for Thursday. "The Taoiseach (prime minister) welcomes the fact that the industrial action planned for Thursday will not now take place," Cowen"s office said in a statement. Talks between government and unions about the proposed cutbacks will reconvene on Wednesday, it added.
