From yesterday’s protest organized by USSCG, Photo: Risto Božović
This year, Montenegrin workers welcome Labor Day without the minimum labor and trade union rights guaranteed by the General Collective Agreement (OKU), it was announced tonight from the Union of Free Trade Unions of Montenegro (USSCG).
The USSCG stated in a statement that they congratulate May Day – International Labor Day to all employees in Montenegro and on the occasion of the same they publish a Proclamation.
“On today’s holiday, we pay tribute to workers who made personal sacrifices fighting for the establishment, preservation and improvement of basic labor and trade union rights, and we pay tribute to our trade union colleagues, men and women workers who, with their trade union involvement, are still standing on the sidelines of labor, economic, social and trade union rights! This year, Montenegrin workers welcome Labor Day without the minimum labor and trade union rights guaranteed by the General Collective Agreement, they welcome Labor Day without increased wages, without a reference constitutional law that determines occupational diseases, without by-laws that are a prerequisite for organizing a strike, without by-laws that define work during national and other holidays, without the right to limited working hours and without absolute freedom of trade union association and activity,” the USSCG Proclamation points out.
It is added that “today, when it is important for the decision-makers to present Montenegro as a leader in economic growth and a leader in social dialogue in front of European partners, they have decided to suspend social dialogue on the eve of the International Labor Day and tell employees through public information that there will be no salary increase and that they will not sign a new General Collective Agreement”.
“While significant allocations are made from the budget for insecure forms of work such as labor contracts and consulting services, significant allocations for the failed housing policy that threatens to evict the rest of the population from the north instead of developing it, for the purchase of new luxury official vehicles, for numerous official trips, while the number of tenants and the number of citizens leaving Montenegro is growing, we welcome Labor Day without an adequate social dialogue at the national level, which is a prerequisite for peace, stability, and social justice. and the rule of law. On this, for the world of work, the most important date, we remind you that public policies must focus on the human, the citizen, that the humanization of work is the basis for social progress, that labor and trade union rights are basic human rights, that there is no economic growth without fair distribution and social peace without social justice,” reads the Proclamation.
USSCG stated that they will continue to fight continuously and uncompromisingly for the improvement of living and working conditions for employees and for the creation of a more humane and fairer social environment, calling on their membership, but also all employees, for solidarity and unity while reminding that labor and trade union rights are universal.
“Convinced in the power of social dialogue, on International Labor Day we call on the Government and social partners to be at the negotiating table again as soon as possible and for the benefit of all to find the most acceptable solutions both in terms of preserving the rights from work and on the basis of work and in terms of protecting the living standards of all employees in Montenegro. And this year, in anticipation of the International Labor Day, the USSCG organized the May Day Trade Union Academy which gathered in one place social partners, representatives of the highest state authorities, the non-governmental sector and of media workers, with the aim of pointing out the importance of this holiday and the importance of the trade union, that is, the workers’ struggle. This year, in a not easy competition, the May Day trade union award for the most outstanding trade union activist/woman went to the colleague Ivan Vujović, the president of the trade union organization EPCG – Željezara Nikšić, while the May Day trade union award for the most prominent trade union/union organization was awarded to the Trade Union Organization of the Broadcasting Center of Montenegro on this occasion, congratulates on the recognition for the contribution they made to the overall trade union movement and the improvement of the labor and trade union rights of their members”, it is written in the USSCG Proclamation.
Yesterday, at the protest organized by USSCG in Podgorica, General Secretary of USSCG Srđa Keković called on the Government to sign a new General Collective Agreement (OKU) with an increased calculation value within 15 days at the latest, or else they will respond with radical measures.
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