Novi Sad public communal companies on strike

Novi Sad, Jan. 21 2010, (Serbia Today) – As B 92 reports that workers of all 14 public communal companies in Novi Sad have gone on strike because the city refused to return their salaries to last year’s level.

The strike started this morning, but the minimum work process determined by the city representatives and companies’ managements will be provided.

Several hundred workers gathered in front of the City Hall around 10:00 CET and demanded from Mayor Igor Pavličić and City Council to meet their demands.

According to a city decision, the salary mass in these public companies have been reduced by ten percent due to the negative consequences of the global economic crisis.

President of the Strike Committee Zoran Radosavljević said that the Novi Sad local assembly decision to reduce the salaries was unjustified, since the wages were already frozen.
“The government announced that wages would be frozen at the 2009 level. If they kept their decision we would not be protesting,” he said.
Chief of the negotiating team and councilor Milan Đukić said that the Ministry of Labor was notified about the strike and that therefore, it was not ruled out that negotiations would resume, with the government as a mediator.
Meanwhile, Milan Ćulibrk, an economic journalist, thinks that the frequents strikes and announced strikes in the public sector are the government’s fault, because it gave in to the demands of the EPS union to increase the company’s wages.

”It’s possible that workers in other budget-financed companies will follow suit. That includes education, health care, military, police and public services companies. It is the government’s fault because it provided cause for such behavior,” Ćulibrk believes.