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The time when we talked at the table is over – now they will have to hear us from the streets.
They need to take off their rose-colored glasses, get out of their official vehicles and see how families go from market to market looking for cheaper bread.
We will not succumb to pressure, we are on the verge of a general strike.
The bosses are not despots – they must realize that without workers’ they have no capital.
With your attitudes, you have not only evicted the workers’, but also evicted their families, relatives and friends.
The import of foreign workers’ is just 'import-export' – they will pay for their travel and food expenses, and those same workers’ will only use Macedonia as a stopover and go to Western Europe which is their main goal, are just some of the points from the interview of SSM’s president Slobodan Trendafilov with Gorazd Chomovski for Triling on Television 24.
Part of the interview:
"The Government and employers are playing with the workers' fate, with the workers' sweat, with the workers' suffering. And they have been playing for a very long time. That is why the time when we talked, and listen how they told us to come to an agreement with the employers’ organizations, and we as Government will accept everything, is over. They are the ones who did not come to an agreement as Government with the employers’ organizations by 31.12.2025 and…that’s why we are taking the revolt to the streets, because if they don’t want to hear you at the table, they have to hear you from the streets. What they are doing is not only playing with the workers' fate but also with the workers' lives.
-If Macedonia as country remains at the bottom when it comes to the minimum wage, then some enjoy it and others suffer. I do not know what kind of policy is this, regardless of whether it comes from the employers', that is, the bosses' or whether it comes from the Government…. It is not comprehensible to have the poorest workers’ and lead the poorest country, and by the way, to brag about such a situation in interviews," said in an interview for "Trilling" the president of SSM Slobodan Trendafilov.
"We will not give up just as we did not give up in the past and they demanded this from us. Last year they asked us to give up, they attacked us so that we would give up. They tried to prevent us with various measures, they tried to stop our demands, and stop our protests. The Government's way of thinking is that only SSM is demanding an increase in workers' salaries and that workers’ live well in Macedonia. The bosses also see SSM as the only obstacle because we point to such a situation. But, as I said we will not give up despite all the pressure. We will organize new protests, new blockades and we are on the verge of a general strike in the public sector and private sector. If they are comfortable with 33% of the total number of employees living on a salary below 31,200 denars, which is below the poverty line, we cannot allow that," saysTrendafilov.
Asked about what kinds of pressures they face, Trendafilov says that as beginning they have been trying to discredit SSM for the entire year of 2025.
“We will not give in. They tried to stop us from taking the revolt to the streets, they raided trade union organizations, they artificially created a representative yellow trade union just so it can become a partner of the Government and employers that will do whatever they ask them to do. Despite all that, they did not succeed in silencing us,” Trendafilov added.
Regarding Minister Durmishi’s statements that they will not give in to the trade union pressure, and that he remains committed to increasing the minimum wage from 1.500 to 2.000 denars in March, Trendafilov says that what is important at this moment is for the Government and employers to know that no one, except the workers’ is putting pressure on them, because the workers’ are the ones who cannot afford to feed their families.
"Workers cannot make ends meet in a month. If they consider as pressure the fact that the workers’ are asking for a crust of bread, and they are the ones enjoying mangoes, papayas and various luxuries that are able to afford, then they forget to tell the workers’ something, and that is that their salaries are increasing 10 times more than the planned 25 euros for the workers’. They will receive an increase of 250 euros or 200 to 300 euros. And aren't they ashamed to tell the workers’ that they will not succumb to their pressure, when they are the ones who will take 250 euros or an entire year's salary in one month. In such a case, I think they should take off their rose-colored glasses, get out of those tinted windows in their company cars, get out of their offices and go to supermarkets and see how workers’ and citizens enter one, another, a third market to buy cheaper products so that they can feed their family," says Trendafilov.
Asked to assess the statement of the President of the Chamber of Commerce of Macedonia, Branko Azeski, who said "we can go with whatever increase you want in the minimum wage, but you may not get it tomorrow", the head of SSM said that it is shocking that the same people who are making such comments and are having the same attitudes for 26 years, have not only evicted workers’ from Macedonia, but also evicted their entire families.
"In 36 years, a huge number of families, in addition to workers’ who go abroad for work, have left the country. They have evicted our relatives, friends, brothers, neighbors, sisters. I think that this is a defeat. Today, Macedonia is where it is precisely because of the employers, and the employers are the ones who have the excuse that the productivity needs to be increased and not the wages. I know that Macedonian workers’ are too productive for the wages they receive in Macedonia. Employers must understand that they are not despots. They must realize that they are partners with the workers’, that the workers’ create their capital and that without the workers’ they will have no capital. The excuses that they can increase the minimum wage on paper, but that amount won’t be received by the workers’ are not correct. We as trade unionists realized that we must speak with the language of arguments because they did not want to be understood otherwise," Trendafilov says.
Today Macedonia opens the door to 10 thousand foreign workers. Asked whether we really do not have a working population or simply no one wants to work just anything and for the low salaries anymore, Trendafilov says that today no one wants to work just anything and for no matter what amount, because workers’ today have a choice.
"If they do not find the choice here, they can very easily find it somewhere in our surroundings or in Western Europe. But, what is shocking is that the Government and employers, and already the mentioned above president of the Chamber of Commerce, said that they do not need so many quotas for foreign workers, that the domestic potential should be used. If you want to replace domestic qualified workers with unqualified or low-skilled workers who do not know the language, this is import-export. They will bring them to Macedonia, they will pay for their transportation costs, food and accommodation, and then those same workers’ will go to some foreign country in Europe as their final goal," says the head of SSM, Slobodan Trendafilov.
