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“We will not remain silent and we will continue to fight for our rights”, said the Trade Union of Culture of the Republic of Macedonia (SKRM) at a protest held today in front of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in Skopje.
Under the motto that the silence is a crime against one's own dignity, the Trade Union of Culture of the Republic of Macedonia (SKRM) today held a mass protest in front of the Ministry of Culture. Cultural workers are alarmed that after three decades of fighting for the systemic regulation of their rights, they are today facing an attempt to completely abolish the only functional Collective Agreement in this sector.
The trade union stressed that this time it is not just about salaries, which have been cut for the second year in a row, but about preserving the dignity of 2.300 employees. They recalled that six years ago, with great enthusiasm, they built a system that was supposed to be the standard for all other sectors, and today it is presented as "problematic" only to justify the cuts in the funds.
"Here we are again – this year too, in front of these gates of the Ministry of Culture. Will there finally be peace for us, cultural workers? Will they finally let us work without constantly creating new problems for us? Obviously, this Ministry respects only one tradition – the tradition of protests. Every year it finds a new reason to gather us here. But this year the reason is much bigger. Today we are all faced with a fait accompli. Our basic workers' rights are at stake. This time it is not just about the salaries, which have been cut for the second year in a row. This time all our rights that we fought for over the years are at stake – rights that we fought for together and won six years ago, after three decades of complete neglect of us cultural workers’. Let us remember – we were the only sector where collective agreements were signed only on paper and never implemented. Our rights depended on someone's personal interpretations and will. For thirty years we were left on the margins of society – the lowest paid, without regulated salary supplements and without basic workers' rights. And then we were “good”. Back then we were no bother to anyone. No one called us to negotiations, even though we didn’t have an active collective agreement for 15 years. We were silent, invisible – and therefore “acceptable”. Today, when we defend our rights, we are suddenly the “bad ones”. Arrogant. Self-righteous. Unprepared for dialogue. And the truth is simple: we are not asking for anything more than what is ours based on our Collective Agreement. We are only asking to be saved and respected what we have already agreed upon.
We are here because justice is not being given – it is being demanded.
We will not remain silent while our rights are being taken away. We will not accept injustice as the new “normal”. We will not allow the work of 2.300 workers to be erased with one decision. We are not numbers. We are the culture of this country. Enough of ignoring. Enough of humiliation. Enough of making decisions behind closed doors! No more silence. No more retreat. No more “we’ll see”. This is our work. These are our rights. And we will not give them up! If there is no dialogue – there will be even louder resistance. If there is no solution – there will be even greater pressure. We must not stop. And we will not stop.
Today we are here. Tomorrow we will be even more. Until justice prevails! Long live the Collective Agreement for Culture!" - emphasized the President of SKRM, Vera Atanasovska
Today’s protest also received support from the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia, which emphasized that “it is not only the Collective Agreement for Culture that is at stake”.
SSM says that "At stake are all collective agreements that establish a method and methodology for calculating wages, regardless of whether it is an average or minimum wage multiplied by complexity coefficient, regardless of whether it is the lowest wage multiplied by complexity coefficient, regardless of whether it is an additional % for a wage increase, etc."
