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.

AG: Let me begin by asking about the last round of privatization in Serbia. What used to be called in the state-socialist system of former Yugoslavia, "socially owned property," is being enclosed and privatized. How advanced is this process of "privatization through bankruptcy" at the moment? And at the risk of sounding legalistic, how legal is this process of accumulation by dispossession?

MEDIA RELEASE (Podgorica, 28. April 2010) - Following the sudden dismissal of Sandra Obradovic, the head of one of the trade-union organizations in the Aluminum Plant - Podgorica (KAP), a number of NGOs are demanding of [Montenegrin] state institutions that they ensure that rights to trade-union organization and freedom of speech are protected.

The KAP management handed Sandra Obradovic dismissal papers because of her presence at a round-table discussion organized by MANS [a local anti-corruption NGO] about the privatization of Montenegrin companies. The company justified her dismissal by stating that her participation at the event was aimed at fulfilling a "private need" and that by doing so she had abused her trade-union function and demonstrated her lack of respect for the employer.

The current socioeconomic situation in Serbia begins to become clear when even the neoliberal media quotes some of the less radical union leaders saying that the current wave of strikes may "spiral out of control."

Global Balkans / EDITOR'S NOTE: The following article was written by Srdja Kekovic the Secretary General of the Union of Free Trade-Unions of Montenegro (UFTUM) following the mass protest of up to 1500 steelworkers from the Željezara AD plant in Nikšić who converged on the Montenegrin city of Nikšić last week to insist on government guarantees aimed at preserving jobs in the factory and ensuring that the terms of the privatization agreement are respected by the British/Dutch owner Montenegro Specialty Steels (MSS). The article includes a number of important points regarding the process of reform and privatization in the Balkans and for the trade-union movement in general on necessary steps during the economic crisis.

The Steelworkers
By: Srđa Keković

26 November 2009
FORUM, Vijesti