The following text is a translation of a recent article written by the head of the Steelworkers Union in Montenegro, Janko Vucinic. It reflects some of the lessons learned from the past two decades of transition, highlighting the pitfalls of nationalism and bureaucratized trade-union structures for workers' struggles. The Niksic Steelworks in Montenegro is now facing liquidation and the union representing its workers is mobilizing to prevent the company from going under.

The turning point in Montenegro’s recent economic history was the so-called ‘anti-bureaucratic revolution’ in the late 1980s, which was motivated by a combination of worker discontent and national feelings stirred by the situation in Kosovo and the desire for a joint state. The social status of workers was actually better then, though it was still below the European average. However, generalized worker discontent, mixed with rising nationalism and the weakness of the governing elites of that era, created a situation in which workers blindly took a step into the future, without thinking through the consequences. A period of wars, sanctions, hyperinflation, etc. followed. During this period, new frontiers appeared for those who had seized state power on this wave of worker discontent, allowing them to engage in the legalized plunder of socially-owned property. Simultaneously, criminal actions related to the smuggling of oil and tobacco multiplied under the banner of state-survival. This period witnessed major transformations, including the shift from self-managed socialism to neoliberal capitalism. The opportunity for gaining enormous wealth was offered on a platter to those in power, while the majority of society was dispossessed.

Sanctions affected the productivity of factories in different ways. In the case of the Nikšić Steelworks, the sanctions created a protected market within Serbia and Montenegro. Yet, the steelworkers themselves saw few benefits from the enterprise’s economic success. They received instead rations in tin-cans, maybe some lemons and soap. Since salaries were paid out in dinars during the era of hyperinflation, actual earnings were 5-10 Deutsch Marks (DM), while a ton of reinforced steel would sell for 800 DM. This was an era of ‘tycoonization,’ when local businessmen sprouted-up all over, hustling at the expense of those who couldn’t ‘figure out’ the new rules. On the other hand, those factories geared towards export markets were not able to survive; their assets were stripped and sold for nothing. It’s unnecessary to repeat who was responsible for this.

It was logical for reforms to happen within the trade-union movement itself during this period. These changes eventually took place, though with a long delay. Before the ‘AB Revolution,’ during the period of self-managed socialism, the main question was what role trade-unions should play in a context were workers officially controlled the factories. A controversy from this period was whether or not the system actually allowed workers to manage their factories or whether the system produced bureaucrats who managed to control the decision-making process at the expense of workers. This controversy was one of the crucial points animating the AB Revolution. These questions at the factory-level were also reproduced at the level of the trade-union. The Confederation of Trade Unions of Montenegro (CTUM) inherited the bureaucratized structures of the past, acting like a bureaucratized appendage of the state with little relation to worker struggles. In fact, it often worked counter to these interests.

With the formation of the new Union of Free Trade Unions of Montenegro (UFTUM), a pioneering effort to create a modern trade-union responding to the actual situation within society emerged. The members of the UFTUM are workers who’ve recognized the important role trade-unions play and have willingly joined this workers’ organization. This is in contrast to the members of the CTUM, many of whom don’t even know that they’re paying union dues to support a bureaucratized leadership apparatus. A leadership that only serves the interests of the government and the Employers’ Union by rubber-stamping new laws that on a daily basis reduce the rights of workers in Montenegro. The CTUM’s recent acquiescence to the amended General Collective Agreement (instituting cuts to holiday bonuses and ‘hot meal’ allowances), without the consent of its members, only confirms what we’ve long come to expect from its leadership.

The goal of the UFTUM is to create trade-unions without bureaucratized leaders, whose representatives will act as ‘megaphones of the working-class,’ living and working in the same conditions as those whom they represent. Such union reps will be easily recalled by the membership. Such reforms should make it impossible for one man to sign-away the rights of some 170,000 workers in Montenegro. Such acts can only be valid for him and for the bureaucratic apparatus of the CTUM. It holds no validity for the UFTUM’s membership or for the members of the CTUM who were not consulted.

Much has already been said about the privatization of the Nikšić Steelworks and its former components (which were spun off as separate shareholding companies). What is clear now is that their privatization was an enormous mistake. All that remains is to fight now for the survival of those parts of the Steelworks that remain. The Foundry has already been shut down, as has the Promont plant, while Radvent is near closure and MMK Standard has been cut into pieces and sold-off. In short, the Nikšić Steelworks is now on life-support. All that remains is for the trade-union to act on the key lesson learnt from this period of transition: “Resist or you will be crushed!” Montenegro’s steelworkers will be facing important challenges in the weeks ahead and are taking this slogan to heart.

The 2008 Labor Law and all the laws introduced during the current economic crisis - which in many ways acted as a cover for attacks on working people - were all the creations of the government, the Employers’ Union and the narrowest leadership of the CTUM. Recent amendments to the GCA, the Pension and Disability Insurance Law, etc. are only the continuation of the process begun two years ago with the Labor Law, allowing for the uncontrolled exploitation of workers and the creation of extra-profits at their expense and in the interests of capital – a form of capital, that at least in these parts, doesn’t even recognize boundaries between legality and criminality.

President of the Executive Board, UFTUM

Janko Vučinić

Translated by Kole Kilibarda (for Global Balkans)