A Serbian union official said he cut off his own finger and ate it to show how desperate he and other workers are over wages that have gone unpaid for years, Reuters reported.
"We, the workers have nothing to eat, we had to seek some sort of alternative food and I gave them an example," Reuters quoted Zoran Bulatovic. "It hurt like hell."
The Raska Holding textile factory union leader used a hacksaw to chop the little finger off his left hand Friday in Novi Pazar, southwest Serbia.
Bulatovic said he decided to cut off his finger after a worker with three kids said she would do it, Reuters reported. Some Raska Holding employees have not been paid for years, and about two dozen of them went on a 19-day hunger strike last year.
Bulatovic said the workers' demands will not stop, but that self-mutilations will be postponed until talks with government officials expected Tuesday.
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