SURVIVAL AT COST OF HUMILIATION

Date written : 06.05.1995 13:51:14 W+1

In the past five years in Kosovo, a lot of things have changed in the political and economic sphere, especially in the everyday life of ordinary people. Leaving the Kosovo Albanians without sustenance due to known political objectives, which has, among other difficulties of the authorities in Serbia, accelerated decline of the economy and closing down of socially-owned enterprises, and many families which lacked the courage for a new adventure - to leave Kosovo in order to try their luck and seek material tranquility in some of the asylum centres of Europe and the world, were forced to take up work they would have never dreamt of taking a few years ago.

There are few who have succeeded, thanks to the "benefits" of the Socialist system which is far behind us, to provide an enviable material basis for living, who have very quickly adapted to new social relations, and nowadays are rich owners of firms who have never, and who it seems never will have problems. It is a fact, though, that the burden of transition from the social to the private development of the economy lies heavily on the shoulders of those who used to be called the "working class". Nowadays, it all reminds of the times before trade union organizations were formed, when the worker had one single right - the right to work as much and in the manner the employer orders him to do. They work for 12 to 16 hours a day, without the right to a free meal, and depending on the needs of the employer, without a weekly of monthly break, pursuant to the already established slogan: "If you want to work like this - alright, if you don't - there are those who do". Although, in Kosovo most frequently private owners of firms employ their closest relatives, when speaking of "large" business, such connections fade away. Everything is reduced down to primitive exploitation contrary to all codices on the rights of the workers. Various examples speak for themselves.

Certain F.S. from Prishtina, once a manager in a socially-owned enterprise, with university education, worked eight months for a relative who is a manufacturer of plastic bags, bottle covers and similar products. "For days we warned our employer that the machines were out of order and that this made work more difficult, which sometimes lasted from eight in the morning until 21 hours. The manufacturing process grew more difficult every day and the compensation more irregular. It was agreed that it would amount to 200 dinars a month, until one day I was left without my forefinger and my thumb because the machine I worked on was out of order. The only compensation I got was that the employer transported me to the hospital where they offered me first aid which I paid for. I also got the remark that I could have lost my arm because allegedly I was absent-minded".

Emina G. works in a cafe, most frequently from 9 in the morning until two in the morning. "For how long I will endure like this, she says, I don't know, although, I have no choice because I support myself and my family out of the charity of my boss. I don't even remember any more what the compensation for my work was supposed to be, but I am aware that I will not be able to go on like this for long, because two workers are necessary for the work, but it is not profitable for the boss", Emina says.

The destiny of the majority of the employed Albanians in the private sector is similar or even worse. The small number of workesr of Albanian nationality who are still employed in state firms, such as the Electric Company of Kosovo, for instance, although they regularly pay their membership dues, willingly or not, to the official Independent Trade Union of the Republic of Serbia, do not enjoy any rights only because they are of a different nationality - that is, Albanian. They cannot purchase any food on credit like their Serb and Montenegrin colleagues, they have no right to gifts awarded for the Eighth of March, or any other Trade Union privileges. People who are forced to survive by working are jeopardized on the one hand by the new private owners of firms, and on the other by the unscupulous society which does not include them in the protected categories of inhabitants due to their nationality. One could say - fishing in troubled waters.

Tahira GOVORI AIM Prishtina