- Македонски
- English
On 29.04.2026, a press conference was held in the premises of the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia (SSM) on the eve of International Labor Day, May 1st, at which the President of the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia (SSM) Slobodan Trendafilov announced the protest that will be held on May 1st and stated that:
"Dear representatives of the media, dear workers,
International Labor Day, May 1st, is the day when you don't invite or wait for an invitation, but you come because of what this day represents for all the workers’. It is the day when workers and the real trade unions all over the world go out to protest and demonstrate. It is the day when workers should be the loudest. The day when the workers should go out on the streets side by side and show that the injustice they have tolerated all year can be clearly and loudly expressed and opposed by them together with the real trade unions.
The Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia (SSM) has been taking to the streets in protest on May 1st since 2018, and this year will do so as well. At the protest, among other things, we will highlight the main demands we have loudly expressed many times over the past period, which is the non-increase of the minimum wage by action of the Government and by action of the employers as an existential right of the workers because more than 260.000 workers in Macedonia, according to the latest data from the Public Revenue Office, live with incomes below 600 EUR, that is, as much as the workers’ are demanding the minimum wage in Macedonia to be. Those workers’ that receive a salary below 600 EUR represent 50% of the complete workforce in Macedonia, and therefore these workers should not meet us on the street and just complain to us, should not send us messages and complain to us, but rather they should stand shoulder to shoulder with us and show that they are dissatisfied with the workers' salaries, dissatisfied with the salaries that their families earn, and especially to do all this because of the miserable adjustment of the minimum wage by only 1.667 DEN that happened in March of this year, as well as the increase in the value of the Trade Union Minimum Basket by 2.304 DEN since the beginning of the year, that shows that in one family, if both workers are on the minimum wage, that family lacks a few hundred DEN to provide the most basic nutritional conditions for their family. We can loudly say that this is a devastating fact for all those who create the national policies, for all the employers in Macedonia and for all other stakeholders in our society.
Today, the collective agreements in our country are also under attack, despite the fact that a large number of branch trade unions united in SSM have managed to claim victory in the fight for an increase in the salaries of their colleagues, in a way that they have managed to negotiate and sign collective agreements at the employer level in large numbers in both the public and private sectors. The possibility of revoking a collective agreement such as the Collective Agreement for Culture, possibility that is happening now, which is on the initiative of the Constitutional Court, is a possibility that could cause a domino effect for the revoking of all collective agreements that provide and include methods for calculating wages. They do not respect the wages of the employees, especially the ones in the public sector, they do not respect the method for calculating the wages - average wage multiplied by the complexity coefficient included in the General Collective Agreement for the Public Sector, and what they want is to abolish the method- minimum wage multiplied by the complexity coefficient in the sector - Culture, which of course will further cause financial implications for all workers because the fight to save that collective agreement is a fight to save all collective agreements.
Additionally to this, Macedonian workers leave home every morning for work, say goodbye to their families and do not know if they will return home well and alive... The latest catastrophic case with the loss of the life of a worker and several others workers’ injured at a construction site in Skopje, I think, should raise the alarm among everyone, especially among the existing inspection services and especially among those who should provide a greater number of inspectors and a greater number of inspection supervisions to prevent such disasters. The data that shows that a large number of our fellow citizens lost their lives at their workplaces, and their death costs between 5 and 10 thousand EUR because they were insured, we consider it as a defeat for the complete society, and with that marking Macedonia as a country which is considered to be the blackest spot on the map in Europe in terms of deaths of workers’ at their workplaces and injuries at their workplaces due to the failure to take conditions and special measures for protection and safety and health at work. These three issues are not just questions that float in the air, these are human destinies and especially these are destinies and situations that our workers experience every day.
That’s why, we call on the workers, to say to them that they will also have time for an extended weekend, to say to them that they should join us at 11:00 AM in front of SSM Workers' Home, to join us in as many numbers as possible if they believe and think that they should raise their voices for their salaries. A famous person once said: "If you don't protest, you have no right to be angry later", because you lost that right and the other side, or the Government and the employers, believe that as many workers come, that many workers actually want and need a salary increase and that many workers are actually the ones that are not satisfied with their salaries.
The Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia (SSM) this year showed that May 1st is not just one day. We have been protesting for months. We organized a large protest in January and in March, the Trade Union of Culture organized two protests in their field, we organized three blockades and probably after May 1st there will be new protests if the workers ask us to do so, because on May 4th, that is, the first working day after the extended weekend, all those who will go on an extended weekend and decide not to join the workers' protest will be again hit with the harsh reality because they will again receive miserable salaries at the beginning of May and will not have enough to make ends meet, that is, after the 15th of the month they will wonder if with the help of some magic or some other means they will be able to find money to be able to push and survive the rest of the month.
The Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia has shown that it is not afraid, that even if one person comes out to protest on May 1st, we will be on the streets with that person. We start in front of SSM Workers' Home at 11:00 AM, then we continue in front of the Parliament, the Chamber of Commerce and the Government where we will send the main workers’ demands and messages. One protest, one strike and one blockade do not change anything, but they help in the trade union struggle because last year when employees in the administration and judiciary started protests, none of them believed that in just 12 months they would manage to secure an increase in their salaries by at least 14% and instead of having that increase for just 3.000 workers, they managed to fight and to get it for more than 11.000 workers. The workers' struggle is a marathon, not a sprint, and therefore I call on everyone not to be discouraged, but to continue to fight for their workers' rights, for the workers' rights of their loved ones, because neither pensions nor salaries in Macedonia are sufficient, and we see that salaries and pensions are not the primary culprit for the increase in inflation that is a reality in Macedonia and which further complicates and makes life more difficult.
May 1st is the day when we go out into the street side by side, when we don't go on a picnic and when we don't go on a long weekend. Of course, everyone has the right to choose how they will celebrate the day, but let us remind you that this day is celebrated because in 1886, the people of Chicago, the workers in Chicago, fought for the existing 12-hour workday to be shortened to an 8-hour workday. Those people, even at the cost of their lives, decided to fight so that today all of us and all of you as workers can enjoy the benefits. We believe that the respect for those who started this tradition of active trade union struggle and respect for the International Labor Day, May 1st, is something that should be an example in Macedonia. In the past, we have witnessed that it was more important to go on a picnic, but I will remind the workers that in 2007, May 2nd, as a workers' holiday on which people went on a picnic, was abolished by law, thus making it impossible for workers to celebrate on May 2nd and protest on May 1st.
We call on all of you who believe you should fight for your dignity, for the dignity of your family, for your dignified wages and dignified working conditions.”
LONG LIVE MAY 1ST!
