STRIKE OF RAILWAY WORKERS

AIM Zagreb, 11 December, 1996

Croatian railway workers are continuing their strike refusing to work for the second week already, although the Supreme Court on 9 December proclaimed that their strike was illegal. The strikers have eight days to lodge an appeal and the verdict will be legally binding only if the Supreme Court ratifies it in a procedure of the second instance, but the leaders of the Trade Union of the Railway Workers are already announcing that they would organize the strike again, after they temporarily interrupt it because of court verdicts.

The railway workers are demanding signing of collective contracts promised them by the management after their strike in the beginning of the year, but a few months ago it withdrew from the negotiations declaring that it was not authorized to make agreements about raising of the salaries!? The workers also demand respect of workers' rights established by the temporary rules of procedure (reimbursement of holiday expenses, jubilee awards, gifts for children...), and they also ask for the possibility to buy about 1,700 housing units owned by the Croatian Railways, under the same conditions under which the other citizens bought up socially-owned housing units. In statements occasioned by the beginning of the strike, trade union leaders described the situation on the railway - from the minor difficulties such as lack of protective gloves or shoes for maintenance workers to serious problems with purchasing of spare parts for engines which can cause terrible accidents. Trade union leaders mentioned several incidents which have not ended in the gravest possible consequences and which were regularly hushed up by the management - it is claimed, for example, that certain trains due to worn brakes could not stop at stations but couple hundred metres after stations and similar.

On the surface it, therefore, seems that the strike was organized only because of better working and living conditions, but a much bigger stake is actually in the game - a large number od jobs is threatened. At the moment, experts of Canadian company Canac are in Croatia. This company made a study on restructuring of the entire railway system. According to public statements of the experts from Canac there are several forms of this project, among which the so-called radical one - which is heartily recommended to the Government as the best by the Canadians and supported by the bankers from the World Bank - implies sacking of seven to nine thousand workers from the railway company and abandoning 500 km of uneconomic railway.

The Government responded to the strike in the usual manner: it refused to negotiate claiming with fanfare that it had met all workers' demands, so it sent word to them that they could strike until next Easter if they wished. Trade union leaders were proclaimed state enemies, whole sessions of the supreme Council of Defence and National Security were devoted to their persons and acts, they were accused that they wished to preserve their posts at which they were allegedly having salaries higher than ministers. The television kept insisting on the damage suffered by the ports and certain enterprises, telegrams of "conscientious" citizens were read, such as the one sent by the Croatian Society of Political Prisoners which appealed at patriotism of the strikers, polls were published with citizens who protested because they were prevented from using the cheapest means of public transportation, etc.

Trade unions on strike tried to put a stop to the abuse by putting passengers' transportation into operation, but stubbornly leaving freight cars at a standstill. For a few days they even interrupted all freight transportation, but later complied with the order of the minister of transportation and organized 20 per cent of the freight transportation which regulations prescribe as compulsory during a strike.

The campaign of state-controlled media was not unexpected - the authorities and its employees in "mass communication media" always act in this way in similar situations. But the surprise and the hardest blow at the strikers came from within. Railway workers are not united - divided into nine trade unions which gather workers of different professions at the railway. The trade union which is on strike gathers the largest number of members (about 11 thousand), but the remaining eight trade unions are ready for settlement with the administration. Among them are engine-drivers, guards, engineers and other "elite" professions, or workers who are hoping that restructuring would not affect them and that they would keep their posts, so they started appealing to their colleagues to stop the strike.

The management of the railway company got involved in this split among the trade unions stimulating it additionally by different methods - Marijan Klaric, Director General of the Croatian Railway Company, gave Milan Kriksic, member of the Presidency of the Trade Union of Railway Workers of Croatia, 7,000 kunas (little less than two thousand German marks) to found a new trade union and undermine the negotiating force of his colleagues. The confused Kriksic at first took the money - after all if the strikers had not needed the money they would not have been on strike - but he then changed his mind and told his comrades that the director had bribed him. In agreement with them he went to return the money to the surprised director - "who immediately put away the money into his trouser pocket and only after that continued the conversation" - and published the whole story in independent newspapers. The Director did not even wince when the story was revealed and continued to threaten the trade union members on television that the management would not pay their salaries for the days spent on strike.

The Government and the management of the railway company are still refusing to negotiate about the collective contract with the workers and persisting on "radical restructuring" in the next five years promising vaguely that surplus manpower would be provided for by an indistinct "social welfare program" about which they were not able to present a single detail. Although the latest news indicate that the management of the railway company would submit a comprehensive report to the Assembly about the situation on the railway which could crystallize an acceptable manner of redesigning the railway system, experience with such reports shows that the Government is just buying time in this way and diverting attention from real problems. Temporary prolongation of years of service for a large number of railway workers could only be brought about by a political decision to postpone the sharp cuts for a little later, because it is not popular to carry them out during a pre-election period.

IGOR VUKIC