May 1 Statement of ASNS – We should enact dignified work and life for workers and our families

We are marking the International Workers’ Day, May 1, worried about the basic existence of our families and the uncertain and unpredictable future, says the May 1 statement of the Association of Free and Independent Unions (ASNS).

The growth of the prices of food, energy and other basic civilizational needs and the still high inflation have largely “rendered our salary and wage raises meaningless, so nearly a third of the citizens of Serbia are on the brink of poverty, and more than a half of the citizens are barely making a living,” they add.

– On the other hand, the newly rich minority, which nobody knows about and, what’s especially worrying, nobody asks about or checks where all that money is coming from, is promoting its lifestyle and the new subculture of Dubais, McLarens, villas, pools and social networks, thereby mocking the people – ASNS says and adds:

– The social differences are becoming unbearable and all the boasting about the statistics of the average salaries only proves the obscured fact that the society is irretrievably, unjustly, unjustifiably and worryingly stratifying with all the consequences that are reflected in the all-present egoism, lack of any sort of empathy and solidarity, primitivism of all kinds, apathy on one hand and the all-out “barking” and violence on the other.

ASNS once again points to “the fatal consequences of liberalism and demands the re-examination of the strategies and policies of the state and a shift to a social market economy, people’s capitalism and the establishment of a more just society through the redistribution of the social wealth, an equal-opportunity society and intergenerational solidarity and, especially, the honoring of the dignity of work and workers and the basic rights of the employees to unionization and acting through trade unions.”

– The first step would be to reform the tax system and to redistribute the public revenues from the excessively rich state to the poor citizens, to pay the guaranteed minimum wage, recourse and meal allowances in the public sector, to make Sunday a non-work day, to change the Labor Law, which is disastrous to workers, and above all, to have workers and their problems become a topic for the government, the state and this society – they say.

ASNS, they add will, as always, support workers and “with all its potential, continue fighting without compromise against removing job security and precarious work, the open and hidden tendencies to remove or at least marginalize trade unions, the all-present employee mobbing, low wages and all the other numerous injustices and disregard of law with which workers live every day and enact the legal, trade union-related and citizens’ rights of its members and all workers by all legal, trade union-based and civil means.”

– ASNS invites all trade unions and workers to join forces with us and, as the biggest social force, to enact dignified work and life for workers and our families – they conclude, adding “happy May 1 to all workers and citizens.”

Asocijacija slobodnih i nezavisnih sindikata Beograd

ASNS

May 1

International Workers Day

May 1 statement