"Through subterfuge, deception and arrogance, Vuković delegated himself as the credible successor of mentor Maraš"

The executive director of the company "13. Jul Plantaže" Miroslav Vuković delegated himself as the credible successor of his mentor Verica Maraš (former long-time executive director of "Plantaže" who is now only a reference in the company) with subterfuges, deceptions and arrogance, and thus united all workers in dissatisfaction, regardless of party, religious or national affiliation, which ultimately culminated in a warning strike, announced the Strike Committee of the Trade Union Organization "July 13-Plantaže".

They reacted to Vuković's announcement from June 23, in which, among other things, it was stated that less than half of the company's permanent employees participated in the strike, and that the strike was illegal.

"After the warning strike that was organized on June 23, 6, and after the statement of the Executive Director Miroslav Vuković that he made in many media, we consider ourselves obliged to inform you about the way of organizing the warning strike, as well as the situation in our to the company, looking from the point of view of the workers. In his announcement, Miroslav Vuković stated a number of untruths about the trade union organization, the way of conducting the warning strike, the demands of the workers, etc. The trade union organization is the basic form of trade union organization founded by workers who are members of the union," it is emphasized in announcement of the Strike Committee of the Trade Union Organization "2021 Jul-Plantaže" signed by Anka Knežević, Mirko Marković, Danka Drakić Krstović, Marko Kovačević and Nebojša Ralević.

The announcement adds that the representatives of the trade union organization are authorized, legitimate and legal representatives of the workers, who, as added in the announcement, fully and professionally perform their trade union duties and thus undertake all actions permitted by law to protect the rights and interests of workers in the company, respecting and all union regulations.

"Our trade union organization is a full member of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Montenegro as well as the branch trade union of agriculture, food and tobacco industry, and we received full support from them for this struggle of ours. The demands of the workers that were submitted to the employer are realistic, correct and completely achievable. This trade union the organization is not the top as Miroslav Vuković calls it, but this is an organization of united workers. You tried to Vuković with your henchmen to take over the union from the workers, but the outcome is known, the union is now completely controlled by the workers and not you or anyone else. The current leadership, which represents itself as legitimate representatives of the "new government", is actually the leadership of the continuity of former director Verica Maraš", the announcement reads.

The Strike Committee of the Trade Union Organization "13. Jul-Plantaže" also said that it was Maraš who proposed the position of executive director of Vuković after she resigned.

"The appointment of Vuković was supported by the then Board of Directors, which also represented the "old government". What the public needs to know, and which is often manipulated, is that Vuković did not come to the company in October 2020, when he was appointed as the successor Verice Maraš, as early as 2016, to the position of clerk in the legal sector, and immediately after two years she was promoted to the position of Director of the General and Legal Affairs Sector and promoted her colleague Rajka Pejović to her deputy, a person whom the employees in the company value and respect even less than herself Miroslav Vuković. Then in October 2020, during the former regime, he became the Executive Director, while the aforementioned Pejović was promoted again, this time to the position of company secretary," said the Strike Committee of the Trade Union Organization "13. Jul-Plantaže".

They ask the question "how can these people represent the new government if they were elected before the new government was even formed?"

"We understand the perception of the public when they ask "where have the workers been until now and why did they wait for their voice to be heard" and in this context we want to state that Plantaže, as a state company, is in a picturesque way "the state in miniature" and all measures of repression , intimidation and nepotism were also present in our country during all these years. There were individual demonstrations by workers, but anything more serious and massive was stopped at the root by the aforementioned methods. As it took the people at the state level 30 years to free themselves from fear and restraint, no one has to wonder where we workers got the determination to come forward in unison, because we too hoped that on August 30 we would finally see freedom and justice and not that we would have to make an additional effort to convince the new governing structures to replace the leadership of the continuity of Verica Maraš". said the Strike Committee of the Trade Union Organization "July 13-Plantaže".

Ini said that they "expected changes, the liberation of the human spirit, justice, that they will already be working hard to restore the reputation of the company with full vigor."

"And what did we get? Only public humiliation, threats and blackmail from Vuković, which we have already had for the last 30 years. The truth is that with his subterfuges, deceptions and arrogance, Vuković delegated himself as the credible successor of his mentor Verica Maraš and thus united in dissatisfaction with all workers, regardless of party, religious or national affiliation, which ultimately culminated in a warning strike," said the Strike Committee of the Trade Union Organization "July 13-Plantaže".

They also state that the warning strike was organized in accordance with all the provisions of the Law on Strikes, and that the decision to go on a warning strike was made by the competent body of the Trade Union Organization, which is the Trade Union Assembly, just as prescribed by the provisions of the Law on Strikes.

"The deadline for fulfilling the demands presented at the warning strike has passed. No one from the Board of Directors has contacted us, nor from the Ministry of Agriculture, let alone the "management" of the company. We will decide on our further steps at the extraordinary session of the Trade Union Assembly, which will be held during the next week. In the end, we ask ourselves why Plantaže is the only state-owned company in which the members of the Board of Directors were replaced, but there was no change in the executive leadership delegated by Verica Maraš. Please note that the new Board of Directors was elected at the Shareholders' Meeting on April 16 of the current year. Because of all of the above, we expect the representatives of the three ruling coalitions as well as the Minister of Agriculture, Aleksandar Stijović, to publicly inform us whether the management of Plantaž, led by Miroslav Vuković, has their support or not?", concludes the statement of the Strike Committee of the Trade Union Organization "13. July-Plantation".