TRADE UNION: JUST A PAPER KITE

After the First Postwar Trade Union Congress

AIM Sarajevo, 9 October, 1997

The first postwar congress of B&H trade union held on 29 and 30 September, was the climax of accelerated workers' organizing that took place in the past few months. After nineteen branch trade unions of B&H had been established, the B&H trade union, headed ever since the previous system by Sulejman Hrle, this time with the attribute "independent" added to its name, was constituted into a league. Then it elected its old-new leadership, made a big parade out of the event in the presence of guests from the world in which trade unions mean something and remained right at the beginning.

And the beginning, should it be said at all, is the country which has just come out of the war, devastated economy, unemployment, social insecurity and numerous other catastrophic pictures. Only in the Federation, according to official data, where 300 thousand people are registered as employed, almost one third of them are on "waiting leave", that is, have the status which does not exist in labour jurisprudence, without any hope although waiting for something, a Godot of their own. Along with them there are 200 thousand pensioners who are also waiting - but for their pensions! Along with 30 thousand soldiers and 70 thousand war disabled persons, they form an army of unemployed which would be a heavy burden even for a much wealthier and socially better organized state. To all this, one should add an even more catastrophic situation in Republica Strpska, and all that with three million inhabitants which is how many B&H approximately has nowadays, and with the needs which are financed from the budget, such as schooling and health services, but in circumstances in which the budget does not exist, circumstances of an unregulated tax system, of abuses of the hardly operating economy by party leaders, with the political and economic mafia, smuggling, grey economy, illegal labour - and so on and so forth.

B&H such as it is, pressured by civilian semi-protectorate as the current situation was labelled by one of the political dignitaries, hurried, although just partly to regulate its trade unions and get aid for the job from European trade union organizations. The congress was attributed significance which is expressed by the number of foreign delegations (52 guests from European and world trade union organizations), but the congress, obviously had no solution to offer for the problems which refer to the very essence of its existence. Is it just a roof of something that could some day be the trade union of whole of B&H (RS inclusive) or just of the Federation, and whether of the whole Federation, that is, with the workers and their trade union organization from the territory controlled by the HDZ.

Novi set pitanja otvara se sa samouvjerenom tvrdnjom Sulejmana Hrle, predsjednika Sindikata, da åe Sindikat biti partner Vladi i Bičakčiåevim odgovorom da je Vlada spremna na suradnju sa Sindikatom. Podjimo od Bičakčiåa, aktualnog preimjera Vlade Federacije BiH. Zar veå svojom izjavom ne svodi spomenuti sindikat na federalnu ravan, oduzimajuåi mu atribuciju bosanskohercegovački? Drugo, zar Sindikat moºe biti partner nekome kad je i sam slab? A slabost sindikata se ogleda, a kako bi drukčije, u nepostojanju snaºne organizacije, a snaºna organizacija je uvijek skopčana sa snaºnim fondovima. Uostalom, moºe li primjerice ovaj sindikat najaviti þtrajk ºeljeznica? Pa, one ne rade! A radnika ºeljezare? Ni to ne radi! Itd

A new set of questions opens by the self-confident allegation of Sulejman Hrle, president of the trade union, that the trade union will be a partner of the Government and Bicakcic's response that the Government is ready for cooperation with the trade union. Let us start from Bicakcic, the current prime minister of the Government of the B&H Federation. Has not he with his allegation reduced the mentioned trade union to the federal level, depriving it of the attribute of Bosnian & Herzegovinian? Second, can the trade union be anyone's partner, being weak itself? And the weakness of the trade union is reflected in the fact that a firm organization does not exist, and a firm organization is always in connection with powerful funds. After all, can this trade union, for instance, announce a strike of railway workers? They do not work anyway! And what about the workers of the steelworks? They do not work either! And so on, and on, and on... Whoever may think that the trade union organization may become more powerful after the Congress is badly mistaken because not a single Hrle's demand has ever been adopted anywhere by anyone, and he has hardly ever received an answer. Should one mention the example of the workers in Livno (Bosniacs) who were sacked only because of their names and by it show that "Hrle's Trade Union" has neither the power nor can it reach the part of the country which is still called Herzeg Bosnia. Indeed, even Hrle's personal authority is questioned not only because he is a "communist" trade union leader, but because he has lately made it a rule to side with the authorities in Sarajevo against workers' demands, like last spring in Zenica when the police beat up the workers on strike.

It is probably true when Hrle says about his congress that it enjoys support of "the entire workers' and trade-union movement of Europe and the world", but it would be much more important for circumstances in B&H to enjoy support of trade union organizations in RS and "HB". Only then would the trade union be a "significant political force" and demands for opening of the main railroad in B&H, without which there can be no revitalization of the economy, nor reinforcement of the position of the workers, would acquire its true meaning. Until that happens, the trade union will unfortunately be just a paper kite, and since it is, like its Congress, mostly single-ethnic - just a possible model of some future multiethnic organization. It is unrealistic to expect from the trade union to lead the way for politics, no matter how many reasons there may be fo that, reasons which result primarily from the status of the "working class" in the vocabulary of the prewar trade union.

Zeljko IVANKOVIC

(AIM, Sarajevo)

Entrefilet

The first postwar congress of the so-called League of Independent Trade Union of B&H was a summary of previously held meetings of nineteen independent branch trade unions of B&H united in the trade union of B&H. The key topic of the Congress were problems of devaluation of labour and workers' dignity by state administration and institutions of B&H.

"All the strikes of the workers in the past year were caused by arbitrariness and abuse of office of their managers. A large number of war profiteers acquired great wealth unlawfully, and this process has continued after peace had been agreed. Among the profiteers is a great number of managers and ministers who are, together with the local power-wielders, using the existing situation of the absence of the rule of law in order to make a profit for themselves personally", the trade-unionists stated their joint assessment at their congress.

The main objective of the Congress of the League of Independenmt Trade Unions of B&H was to name those who obstruct the operation of economic and non-economic activities in B&H, and to state public demands from the Government of B&H Federation and Council of Ministers of B&H to pass labour legislature, establish the fundamental model of privatization which will make the workers co-owners of a part of enterprises they worked in and continued to develop them during all their years of service.

Delegates at the Congress, 257 of them, among whom was the delegation from the entity of RS, in the presence of 52 guests from the European and world trade union organizations and institutions, with a majority of votes adopted the proposal to the Government to present to the Parliament of B&H draft strategy of development of the society and the war devastated economy, as well as adoption of the social program for resolution of the status of the workers. The Congress also addressed a demand for starting railway traffic between two B&H entities both to the Government and the Office of the High Representative who is according to Annex 9 of the Dayton accords responsible for resolving these problems. The main demand addressed to the Government referred to adoption of the general collective contract based on the one proposed and delivered by the B&H trade union.

Draft statute of the trade union and the program of activities were also adopted at the congress, the new main board was elected, the control board, the statutory commission, and by secret ballot the delegates voted for the president of the trade union between three candidates: Sulejman Hrle, Resad Husagic and Nihad Gusa. Out of 236 valid ballots, Sulejman Hrle won 194 votes, which means that his mandate of the president of the trade union of B&H was practically prolonged for another four years. In his speech Hrle stressed that the congress had the support of the entire workers' and trade-union movement of Europe and the world, mentioning that since the Olympiad in 1984 to this day, nobody has managed to gather more leaders than this congress. "The trade union is a significant political force and it is a strong social partner to government institutions", said Hrle and stressed that the trade union will in the future continue the dialogue with the government and the council of ministrers.

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