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7 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 76/2000
Power workers throughout Serbia are now joining the nationwide wave of strikes, trade union sources inside the country have just told ICEM UPDATE.
Added to the continuing strike by Serbian miners, the electricity workers' action will produce further widespread power cuts. These will increase the pressure on Slobodan Milosevic to concede defeat in the recent presidential elections.
The executive of the EPS union, which organises power workers and miners, is now meeting inside Serbia to review the situation. Originally planned for yesterday, the meeting had to be postponed after police prevented union leaders from reaching Belgrade.
The regime is threatening to crack down on strikers. Serbian sources have received reports that some union leaders have been arrested, but there is no direct confirmation of this as yet.
Other Serbian workers now on strike include members of the Nezavisnost chemical union. Both this union and the EPS are affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which has pledged full solidarity with the Serbian strikers.
The ICEM's member unions from Asia and the Pacific are currently in conference in Singapore.
"Milosevic is acting like a dictator, and the gap between the Serbian people and the government is widening," declared ICEM Asia-Pacific Regional President Daisaku Kochiyama. "We hope that Serbia is now entering the second phase of a transition to democracy. As an experienced trade unionist, I know that any government that loses popular support also loses its legitimacy. So we are backing our Serbian colleagues 100 percent."
And the solidarity of unions worldwide was confirmed by ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs, also speaking from Singapore today.
"We are about organising democratic trade unions," Higgs said, "and we put great emphasis on democracy. We are appalled that the standards that we are required to apply as trade unions around the world have apparently been flouted in such an important election as that for the Yugoslav presidency. We support our affiliates in their endeavour to ensure that the democratic process in Serbia operates in a true, honest and meaningful fashion."
Added to the continuing strike by Serbian miners, the electricity workers' action will produce further widespread power cuts. These will increase the pressure on Slobodan Milosevic to concede defeat in the recent presidential elections.
The executive of the EPS union, which organises power workers and miners, is now meeting inside Serbia to review the situation. Originally planned for yesterday, the meeting had to be postponed after police prevented union leaders from reaching Belgrade.
The regime is threatening to crack down on strikers. Serbian sources have received reports that some union leaders have been arrested, but there is no direct confirmation of this as yet.
Other Serbian workers now on strike include members of the Nezavisnost chemical union. Both this union and the EPS are affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which has pledged full solidarity with the Serbian strikers.
The ICEM's member unions from Asia and the Pacific are currently in conference in Singapore.
"Milosevic is acting like a dictator, and the gap between the Serbian people and the government is widening," declared ICEM Asia-Pacific Regional President Daisaku Kochiyama. "We hope that Serbia is now entering the second phase of a transition to democracy. As an experienced trade unionist, I know that any government that loses popular support also loses its legitimacy. So we are backing our Serbian colleagues 100 percent."
And the solidarity of unions worldwide was confirmed by ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs, also speaking from Singapore today.
"We are about organising democratic trade unions," Higgs said, "and we put great emphasis on democracy. We are appalled that the standards that we are required to apply as trade unions around the world have apparently been flouted in such an important election as that for the Yugoslav presidency. We support our affiliates in their endeavour to ensure that the democratic process in Serbia operates in a true, honest and meaningful fashion."