- Македонски
- English
At today's press conference, the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia announced that tomorrow at 11 am, trade union representatives on behalf of the workers’ will block the Government as part of the second phase of the trade union activities that have the main goal to increase the salaries of all workers'.
The President of SSM Slobodan Trendafilov, while announcing tomorrow's blockades of the Government representatives scheduled for 11 am, also stated that:
"Dear workers...... The Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia (SSM), as we announced, begins the third part of the second phase of the trade union activities that have the main goal to increase the salaries of all workers’ in our country with a blockade of the Government. Tomorrow at 11 am, the Government will be blocked by exactly 21 people, because according to the Law on Public Assemblies, this is the legal minimum number of necessary participants for blocking an institution or a simple road. We will also be exactly 21 people-trade union representatives because someone said that they will stalk the people who protest and mark them, that they will denigrate the people who will protest just so they can in this way put pressure on the workers’ and send a clear message to everyone who believes that they should go out on the streets and support the workers, or better yet everyone who believes that they should go out and support themselves as workers’ in this fight for increase of all wages.
The last of the announced blockages is precisely before the Government because the Government, together with the bosses, by 31.12.2025 did not agree to increase the minimum wage and to increase all workers' salaries by dialogue, exactly as SSM in the name of the workers’ demanded. The Government left the workers on the minimum wage to negotiate with the bosses the possibility to agree on an increase in the minimum wage and all the other wages, and when last year the trade unions and employers did agree on a solution to increase all salaries by at least 6.000 denars, and in this solution it was proposed that the Government also need to have its own contribution by exempting the employers’ from paying mandatory social security contributions, the Government refused…. Therefore and because of all the above…. today, due to the self-righteousness of some individuals in the Government who refused this solution, it costs the state budget or the state treasury at least 10 million euros per month or at least 120 million euros per year. I think that this should worry everyone, and above all should worry the Ministry of Finance, because the employers’ were prepared to increase all salaries by at least 6.000 denars, just asked as one condition for a certain period of time (that will be determined by social dialogue) not to pay the mandatory social security contributions, which were in the amount of 3.000 denars or 50 euros per worker.
The latest blockade is in front of the Government, because this Government has been blocking the workers' salaries for a long period of time and during this period of time all the living conditions of the workers’ got harder, only the value of the trade union's minimum basket has increased by 9.250,00 denars or we can conclude that during this period of time a four-member family is poorer by 9.250,00 denars when the salaries are at a standstill. The last argument of the Government representatives who, together with the bosses, have been continuously talking about in the past period as a justification for not increasing the salaries has also failed. They claimed that the Macedonian workers were not productive, when in reality Macedonian workers are too productive for the salaries they receive or according to the latest data only 17% of what the workers’ create as capital for the employers flows into the salaries of workers or in conclusion 24.379,00 denars is the minimum monthly salary for a worker, and 290.000,00 denars is the productivity that the same worker creates for the employer.
"We believe that after tomorrow's blockade, we will find understanding from both the bosses and the employers because they saw that despite all the threats and all the pressure, we are not giving up and we will not give up until they increase the minimum wage to 600 euros and increase all the other wages by at least 6.000 denars or 100 euros."
To a journalist's question regarding the fact that as the month of March approaches, the actions of the other social partners seem to be tactful and giving the signals that they are only waiting for the legal adjustment of the salaries, ignoring the demands of SSM and the workers’, Trendafilov replied:
"They saw that we are serious in our intentions to fight for the workers’ salaries, and not to beg them. What we have already announced is what will follow… we are about to adopt a Decision for a general strike in the public sector and the private sector. Of course, we will also collect the signatures that we have already announced because both the Government officials and the members of the Parliament are still deaf to the Initiative of the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia to reduce the salaries of the officials, as well as to the Initiative to increase the minimum wage that we have already submitted. The request from the workers and the opinions of some of the trade unions is that we need to organize another large workers' protest. When on January 28 we came out on the streets with 12.000 people, they got scared. When we went out on the streets and organized the blockades with only 21 person (the legal minimum), they got even more scared and started attacking us even more. Probably, in the next period we will have 20.000 workers on the streets and maybe even more, but I don't know what they will do then."
When asked by a journalist how likely it is that workers in the private sector will go on a general strike, the President of SSM said:
"All workers demanded that the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia call and lead a general strike in the same way as their colleagues who defend, go out and support trade unions in Greece, Belgium, France and other Western European countries do.
Therefore the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia (SSM) will adopt a Decision to organize a general strike. With that Decision, every employee in both the public sector and private sector will be protected. The general strike, according to the demands of the workers’, should last at least 24 hours. During the general strike, work tasks will not be performed and during the general strike, the workers’ will join us on the streets to protest at the time and hour that we will determine. Each worker chooses for himself whether to protest and whether to strike or not. If some of the workers are scared, they saw that I personally, as the President of SSM, am not afraid. They also saw that a huge number of their colleagues are as well not afraid, and I believe that they shouldn’t be scared as well, on the contrary they should come out and stand shoulder to shoulder with us on the streets, because unfortunately they are not listening to us at the tripartite table….In these last 20 days we have seen that from the streets they are obligated to listen to our demands."
In response to a journalist's question about whether the general strike will only be organized in Skopje or in all other cities across the country, the President of SSM said:
"A decision on the General Strike will be made for the entire territory of the country. All workers not just from the public sector, but in the private sector as well will have the right to come to work that day, but not to perform their work tasks. All workers will have the right to join us on that day in the protest that we will organize within the framework of the general strike. The more workers come and support themselves, the more they will receive. This is simply because if the workers do not support each other and stand together, then the representatives of the Government, not only this one but also all the previous ones, as well as the representatives of the employers, not only these ones, but also the previous ones, will not see and accept that the workers need an increase of their salaries.
The message that workers send out by not taking to the streets out of fear and by not supporting the fight for increase to all wages is a message to the ones on the other side that they are satisfied with their wages, that they are afraid and that they prefer to listen to politics more than to fight for their own salaries and well-being. That is why I want to repeat one more time that the General Strike will be in all the cities. All workers will have the opportunity to go out to protest in their cities. The big workers' protest that the workers are asking us to organize once again will be on a non-working day or on Saturday or Sunday, will be with organized transportation because a large part of the workers sent us messages that they could not come on their own and on their own expense. What is positive is that on 28th January we also saw that 12.000 people took to the streets to fight for decent wages and working conditions on their own initiative and independently, without SSM organizing transportation and without providing sandwiches for them, as political parties do, and we think that the next time when we do organize transportation for the workers, for all those workers who cannot come to Skopje from other cities at their own expense, then the number will be far greater.
To the journalist's question regarding the date of the General Strike, the President of SSM stated:
"We will decide on the next steps tomorrow, either before or after the Government session. What is symbolic tomorrow for the organized blockade, is that with 21 people we will be blocking the Government representatives, and they are afraid of that... Immediately afterwards or after the blockade the same Government representatives will have a Government session and there the Government can adopt a Decision to increase the workers' salaries, to accept the workers' proposal to increase the minimum wage and to also decide to exempt the employers’ from paying mandatory social security contributions for determined period of time so they can bear the burden of the general wage increase faster and easier. The productivity of the workers’ that the Government talked about and which was used as the biggest excuse not to increase the workers' salaries, with statements such as “if workers' salaries are increased by force, when they are not enough productive, all this would make it impossible for the employers’ to preserve their businesses” can’t be used anymore, because our data and the report from ILO has shown a huge difference when it comes to the productivity of the Macedonian workers’... or as we said, only 17% of what we as workers’ create for them or for the employers’ on a monthly basis goes for our salaries, you can imagine where the rest goes."
