Unions announce "fewer strikes, more protests"

President of the Association of Independent Trade Unions of Serbia Ljubislav Orbovic stated that the year of 2012 would be marked by fewer factory strikes. But at the same time, he said on Wednesday in Belgrade, there will be "much more expression of dissatisfaction in the streets due to the exceptionally difficult position of employees in Serbia". Unions announce "fewer strikes, more protests" Everyone is dissatisfied and unsure of survival both for themselves and their families, Orbovic told Tanjug and added that the value criteria have been lost and that workers are experiencing severe hardships at the moment. He noted that dissatisfied jobless citizens constitute a major problem right now. Orbovic noted that citizens' dissatisfaction escalated over the past few years due to privatization cases which, as he said, were expected to cause certain problems but were supposed to bring other benefits, such as new technological solutions, fresh development, higher salaries, better standard and new jobs. These expectations, however, brought us nothing, just destroyed factories and dismissals, he underscored and added that what over 550,000 jobs were closed over the past ten years. When asked what the trade unions can do to improve workers' position, Orbovic noted that the union cannot be much different from its environment, and underscored that the trade union's role is exceptionally difficult in such a business environment, but the effects are not as good as they should be although certain results have been achieved. The first problem lies in the absence of the legal state, because without it, there can be no way for the union to do its share of work, Orbovic said and added that the trade union won over 95 per cent of labor disputes over the past few years but that this all loses importance because the cases usually take at least from three to five years to close. Ljubislav Orbovic (file) Tanjug

Unions announce "fewer strikes, more protests"

Everyone is dissatisfied and unsure of survival both for themselves and their families, Orbović told Tanjug and added that the value criteria have been lost and that workers are experiencing severe hardships at the moment.

He noted that dissatisfied jobless citizens constitute a major problem right now.

Orbović noted that citizens' dissatisfaction escalated over the past few years due to privatization cases which, as he said, were expected to cause certain problems but were supposed to bring other benefits, such as new technological solutions, fresh development, higher salaries, better standard and new jobs.

These expectations, however, brought us nothing, just destroyed factories and dismissals, he underscored and added that what over 550,000 jobs were closed over the past ten years.

When asked what the trade unions can do to improve workers' position, Orbović noted that the union cannot be much different from its environment, and underscored that the trade union's role is exceptionally difficult in such a business environment, but the effects are not as good as they should be although certain results have been achieved.

The first problem lies in the absence of the legal state, because without it, there can be no way for the union to do its share of work, Orbović said and added that the trade union won over 95 per cent of labor disputes over the past few years but that this all loses importance because the cases usually take at least from three to five years to close.