I no longer have understanding for the Government or the unions

Recently, through the example of HEP, we learned how collective agreements are made in public companies so that ‘the wolf is full, and the sheep are counted’.

The formula is, in short, as follows: some items from the old collective agreement are cut, thereby formally complying with the Government’s request for savings, and then a new right is introduced, which brings employees a generous compensation for agreeing to cut something they never earned and received ‘by the Holy Spirit’ simply because they work in public companies.

Employees in public and state services probably have as many bonuses and allowances on their salaries as there are parafiscal levies in this country. The only difference between them and those working in public companies is that in their case it is somewhat harder to compensate for what they lose in collective agreements. However, they always have the threat of a strike at their disposal.

Representatives of the unions of public and state officials have not heard that GDP fell again in the first quarter of this year; they do not see how many closed trades and small businesses there are because they do not have enough income to pay taxes from which the state pays public and state officials; they are not aware of how many medium and large companies went into loss in the first quarter nor how many will stop paying taxes forever due to bankruptcy… They want their rights to Christmas bonuses, severance pay, and higher salaries returned. If they do not get this, they threaten that they will go on a coordinated strike on Wednesday, June 5. Moreover, they threaten to block the system. 

‘A strike is not our desire, nor our will. The Government with Minister Mrsić has pushed us into this,’ they convey and ask citizens for understanding.

I do not know whom the unions mean by ‘citizens’ they are asking for understanding, but I can surely tell them that that part of the citizens who are fighting for mere survival in the market, in the real sector from which they are being skinned because of them, has no and will not have understanding for the strike. That part of the citizens whose salaries depend on whether the company has managed to sell its products or services and meet all fiscal and parafiscal obligations can no longer understand how it is possible for someone to have a sacred right to Christmas bonuses and severance pay and gifts for children and who knows what else. We in the real sector do not have such rights nor do we have the face to ask for them.

In the real sector, gentlemen unionists of public and state services, strikes only happen when there are no salaries for months, as you could recently see in the case of DTR workers. Sometimes not even then. In the real sector, the threat of a strike does not demand Christmas bonuses and severance pay, because the threat of a strike can only result in dismissal, not in receiving salary supplements. However, regarding dismissals, not only due to threats of a strike but also due to the enormous surplus of those who receive salaries and want more, nothing is known in state and public services. And that is the greatest sin of Milanović’s Government. A greater sin will only be if the Government yields to the demands of the unionists. If it does, it can expect that soon those from the real sector will take to the streets. But not in a strike, rather in protests (after work, of course).