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6 October, 2008
General Secretary Manfred Warda had a productive mission to Serbia 22-23 September where he addressed planned ICEM activities for the Central European Region, as well as hearing the problems and challenges of affiliates from Serbia and Croatia.
Warda also met with Serbian Labour Minister Rasim Ljajic and impressed upon him the necessity of Serbia’s government to be more engaged in encouraging Social Dialogue between trade unions and business enterprises.
Warda also received a favourable response from the minister on Serbia moving to ratify ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention. And his intervention on behalf of Serbian trade union affiliate Nezavisnost over an ugly paper-packaging factory dispute with Ljajic apparently resolved the dispute in the days that followed the meeting.
The meeting with ICEM’s Central European affiliates was facilitated by Freidrich Ebert Siftung (FES), the German labour-oriented foundation. Some 25 trade union delegates took part, and besides leaders from Nezavisnost, the Serbia affiliate, the Autonomous Union of Energy and Petroleum Unions, a former WFIW trade union, participated. From Croatia, leaders of EKN – the Power, Chemical, and Non-Metal Workers’ Union – were present.
The ICEM was privileged to have Nezavisnost President Milorad Panovic, Autonomous Energy, Petrochemical President Branislav Nedeljkovic, and EKN President Ivan Tomac leading the forum, as well as ICEM Central European Project Coordinator Mato Lalic.
Major problems discussed included oil and gas restructuring in state-owned companies; trade union exclusion in ongoing Serbian-Russian energy cooperation; and efforts by small and mid-sized companies to reduce wages and social benefits and harassment of workers – the paper-packaging plant being a prime example.
As well, problems exist within the downstream operations of Russian oil company Lukoil in Serbia. The ICEM pledged to take these concerns to the parent company in the structure of the Global Framework Agreement between ICEM, Lukoil, and the Russian Oil and Gas Workers Union (ROGWU).
There was agreement among participating trade unions on the need for more unity, including withICEM affiliate EPS Trade Union of Serbia, the most representative union in the electric and coal-mining sectors of Serbia, which was not present at the conference.