While weapons were still being rattled after the events in Banjska, 20 organizations from all over the so-called "Western Balkans" signed the document at a conference in Albania. The document is called "Manifesto on dignified work in the region of the Western Balkans" and deserves the attention of the public in Serbia, and not only because of the unfortunate political moment in which it came.
The text of the Manifesto starts from the problems that exist - they are common to the entire Western Balkans, and even much wider: poverty, low wages, low quality of jobs offered, dominance of precarious forms of work, low degree of compliance with regulations on safety at work, dependence on direct foreign investments, a race to the bottom. In order to reduce the negative consequences of all these factors, concrete measures are proposed in the Manifesto. Thus, states are reminded that they must provide:
- Decent wages that follow the value of work: Practically every form of work can be abused, which is currently the case, to lead to excessive labor exploitation of workers, which leads to the fact that the work invested is paid far below its real value. This leads to a significant decrease in wages even though the worker puts in more effort and maintains or increases productivity - a huge part of the newly created value remains with the owners of the capital, which has the effect that the worker can no longer live off his work.
- Comprehensive social protection systems: The social role of the state is slowly dying, while money is taken from the poorest citizens and passed through various "incentives" to so-called "foreign investors". This leads to unsuspected social differences and stratification, but also to the complete endangerment of the poorest and most vulnerable sections of the population.
- Strengthening and development of workers' rights: Tendencies of the last two decades are exclusively in the direction of weakening workers' rights, which are deliberately neglected and the application of regulations is not sufficiently controlled. As a result, we have a cheap workforce that is not protected from the arbitrariness of employers, contrary to all international labor standards.
- Inclusive policies on the labor market and equal access to all the benefits of one's own work for every individual: This applies both to employment and to the use of social rights in accordance with international standards and the needs of the individual, without omission and discrimination in employment, at work, in regarding gender or other personal characteristics.
- Sustainable development: Creating innovative, more permanent jobs and focusing on the green economy, instead of indiscriminately attracting investors who offer short-term engagements and have a detrimental effect on the environment.
- Innovation and use of technologies in favor of reducing inequality: Creation of new jobs that are focused on technologies of the XXI century and their priority instead of advocating for manual simple jobs that survive only because poorly paid human labor is still cheaper than machine labor. Creating modern education systems and increasing productivity that will benefit both workers and employers.
- Democratic government and participation in decision-making processes: Transparent and responsible government that promotes the participation of workers and civil society in decision-making processes that shape labor policies and ensure social justice. A government that prioritizes the needs and voices of its citizens over corporate interests.
- Regional cooperation and solidarity: Economic diversification strategies promote sustainable development and reduce dependence on foreign investments. This can be achieved through the exchange of experiences and knowledge throughout the region. Regional solidarity among workers, trade unions and civil society organizations is key to promoting decent work throughout the region.
Why is this Manifesto important? It was created as a product of the exchange of opinions, knowledge and experiences of people who in all surrounding countries deal with more or less the same tasks: monitoring the labor market, labor law legislation, empowering workers and trade unions, empowering vulnerable groups of workers, gender equality. In those exchanges, it was possible to conclude something that we will never hear from politicians in those countries (or from any politician, for that matter): that the people who live in these areas are at the same time equally committed to providing themselves and their families with a life worthy of humanity. beings, as well as that the same forces of neoliberal predatory capitalism successfully prevent them from doing so. If you talk about deindustrialization - they will tell you that you are telling their story. If you're talking about a race to the bottom - same. If you mention corruption - they will agree with you. If you find that there is no supervision over employers who do whatever they want - you will get a sigh of agreement again, they know how it happens. You will go through a similar process with a number of other topics - social stratification, insufficiency of social protection, slowness and powerlessness of the courts, suppression of trade unions and association of workers.
Serbia shares the same legal tradition with some of those countries, with some it doesn't, but that will turn out to be completely unimportant. Predatory capitalism has lined us all up in the same row of losers, and ironed out all the differences that warmongering politicians insist on. So it doesn't matter if you work in Tirana or Smederevo - you will be deprived of the right to establish a trade union, even though it is guaranteed by the international and national legal order. You will be paid less than you work in both Banja Luka and Tetovo; overtime work will not count for you either in Podgorica or in Pristina; you will work in seasonal jobs in tourism deprived of a lot of rights in both Durrës and Budva. Aside from all your political prejudices - a worker is a worker everywhere, and a worker is disenfranchised everywhere in the Western Balkans.
Hence the need to show this clearly, to share it with as many people as possible, that we can be different and have different views on the world, but that at the end of the day we can all say that we worked for some boss, through some scheme, and that the boss is a little richer and we are a little poorer. The systems that function, with a benevolent or at best ignorant attitude of the state, are identical. They unite us, as does the desire to overcome and change them. And maybe it is on those beginnings that we can/must build some new relationships. The internationalization of the problem of workers' rights in the so-called periphery of the capital market is inevitable and it is already taking place as a reaction of united trade union and other forces, which is a response to the unbearable boasting of capitalists and the state as a service of that capital. Some results are already noticeable, at the level of the European Union, which suddenly does not suit the state authorities of Serbia - how else to explain the complete collapse in joining, especially in the matter related to workers' rights and negotiation chapter 19? Some countries in the region have not yet taken such a harsh stance towards the changes that EU membership inevitably brings. But all of them have in common that they adopt laws that remain a dead letter on paper, while the practice, as a rule, favors only those who have capital, never the workers.
The signatories of the Manifesto have already sent letters to the representatives of their governments, who gathered in the previous days as part of the so-called "Berlin Process" of cooperation in the Western Balkans. Internationalization in this region is possible, even expected - and this Manifesto is important as the first confirmation that we understand each other, that we are striving towards the same goal, and that we will not stop because the basic strength in the fight against predatory capital is in the collective - and such collectivism is easily crosses the borders of countries, because it is led by a sincere fight for the rights of each of us, above all for the right to live with dignity and to provide our families with the same kind of life, as well as for the right to say that we do not want to be exploited, alienated, isolated, unprotected. So read and share the Manifesto further, so that we can recognize and gather, wherever we come from.
(Peščanik.net)
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