Trade Unions of Macedonia submit demands to the Government

The President of the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia Darko Dimovski Tuesday submitted the demands of the trade unions to the Government requiring better Labour Law, providing a vacation recourse for all employees in the state and better general collective agreement for the private and public sector.

Trade union members urged for stop to mobbing at workplaces and more conditions for retirement and stop to the increase of the pension age limit.

Earlier, all trade union organisations came united in front of the government’s building, although protest marches started at different locations.

“This is a new beginning to restore confidence in trade union movement. We will deal with everyone that will betray labour movement and the Trade Union,” Dimovski said prior to submitting the proclamation demands to the government.

He said that unity is now more than necessary because the working class has been disintegrated.

Members of the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia began the protest march on Labour Day held under the motto “Different Ways, One Goal” in front of the building of the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia.

They continued in front of Macedonian Parliament and were joined by the members of the Independent Union of Journalists and Media Workers.

They demanded a non-partisan Parliament for a real change of laws and the dismantling of systemic legal chaos.

“We mark this May 1 in a significantly different atmosphere than the one that ruled over the past 10 years. We respect some of the first steps that the current government is making, but there are also steps that frighten us, which we believe do not go in the right direction. The biggest weakness so far is the terribly slow pace of changes in the plan of labour rights in the function of life with dignity,” members of the Independent Union of Journalists and Media Workers told.

Ivan Pesevski from the Construction Union of Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia said that the representatives in the Parliament and the Government should value the work of the worker and everyone to have a dignified job.

President of the Independent Union of Journalists and Media Workers Tamara Causidis prior to the start of protest march said that they demand decent working conditions and decent wages.

Labour Day protest march coincides with the significant jubilee – 110 years of trade union movement and trade union organizing in the country which Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia marks this year. A jubilee that is very significant in the struggle for labor rights and improving the labor movement in the country.