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9 March, 2009
The Serbian union, EPS Trade Union, has made a stand for some 7,200 displaced Kosovo workers, who lost their jobs from state-run Electric Power Industry of Serbia (EPS) in 1999 due to war. Since then, unemployed workers have received 60% of median wages from the utility.
But beginning in January, a government decree from the Ministry of Energy and Mining ordered that amount reduced to the minimum state-level wage, reneging on an agreement it had with the union in a 2008 EPS business plan. On 19 February, 5,000 of those workers showed up in freezing temperatures and a sleet storm in Gracanica and Priluzje to protest the cuts. EPS Trade Union President Milan Đorđević intervened to block the rollbacks, and the union has pledged to be vigilant in retaining the 60%.
Milan Đorđević
Separately, EPS Trade Union has issued a five-day deadline for earnest negotiations to begin with the government over several issues involving the public utility’s mines and businesses. One of the chief demands is fulfilment of an agreement signed with the government on 23 October 2008 and another is dialogue on the 2009 business plan.
Other demands include full consultation on several operational issues, as well as possible privatisation plans by EPS.
The union will hold a press conference tomorrow in Belgrade to discuss the government’s failure in February to address the demands and will follow that up with a protest on Thursday, 12 March, in front of the Government of Serbia building in Serbia’s capital city.