FIET Central and Eastern Europe
FIET Commerce
11 July, 1997

FIET Trade Union Solidarity Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina:

International project committee was established and project director appointed

The structures for FIET's solidarity project in Bosnia and Herzegovina have begun to take shape. At a meeting in Oslo, Norway, an international project committee was established under the leadership of Sture Arntzen, member of the FIET and Euro-FIET Executive Committees and President of Norwegian commerce union Handel og Kontor i Norge (HK). HK has been the driving force of the project.

The project committee members include representatives of all the partners, including, the Presidents of the Danish and Swedish commercial workers' unions, Jörgen Hoppe and Kenth Pettersson. Hoppe is also a Steering Committee member. Pettersson is the President of Euro-FIET Commerce, and a member of the FIET and Euro-FIET Executive Committees. FIET's social partners are represented by Hans Kristiansen, Information Director of the Norwegian Commerce and Service Employers, and Sören Henriksen, Senior Managing Director of Danish Commerce and Service, who is also the Vice-President of EuroCommerce in charge of labour and social affairs. Jan Furstenborg, Head of Department, FIET Commerce and FIET Central and Eastern Europe is Vice President of the project committee. The committee will be further expanded by representatives of organisations that want to make a major direct contribution to project activities.

The project committee approved the project plan and budget and supported the notion of a project structure which allows for future expansion. To ensure that the project gets well under way, the decision was taken to establish a project director in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, from the beginning of July. As project activities will be conducted on an equal basis in both entities of the country, the project director will also have an office in Banja Luka in the Serb Republic. Alex Rüdig was appointed to be project director, with Mersiha Besirovic as project secretary, based in Sarajevo.

Alex Rüdig, left, leads the FIET project team in Bosnia and Herzegovina, assisted by Mersiha Besirovic

Alex Rüdig is a German graduate student with an extensive experience of working in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has been working together with FIET and its affiliates as a project consultant from the very beginning of activities in October last year. Mersiha Besirovic now works at the commerce union headquarters in Sarajevo and has been seconded by her union to the project organisation.

In the initial stages, the joint administrative structures and the project offices in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be financed through a grant from the Nordic Committee of Commerce Trade Unions. Initiated by the Scandinavian commercial workers' unions, the project is now drawing support from a growing number of other organisations. FIET's commerce affiliates in Germany, Italy, Hungary and Slovakia have been among the first to commit themselves to participation. The bank and insurance workers' unions in the Nordic countries, with Norway's insurance workers showing the way, have also decided to launch support activities for their colleagues in Bosnia and Herzegovina as have many other affiliates.

The new project director has started her work

Alex Rüdig, the new Project Director, has a particular reason for being so interested and concerned by the events in ex-Yugoslavia. Her mother was born in Zagreb, Croatia, and from a very early age Alex learned the language, culture and history of her mother's origins. When the war broke out in the country, Alex succumbed to an overpowering desire to help the humanitarian effort.

As a student of political science and public law, specialising in the history of Eastern Europe, it was fitting that her first post in Bosnia and Herzegovina was as an assistant in the legal department of the EU Administrator's office in Mostar, Hans Koschnik. She remained in the post for two years from 1994 to 1996. Following this post, she returned to Germany to continue her studies. Even while in Germany she maintained her links with Bosnia and Herzegovina through her work with German MP Dr. Schwarz-Schilling, the International Mediator for the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

She met with FIET's first mission to Sarajevo in October 1996 and initial discussions took place regarding the FIET initiative in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Alex will set up the project co-ordinator's office in Sarajevo in July and her first objective will be to build on the renewed contacts between the commerce unions from the two entities and establish administrative structures.

She emphasised that the climate remains apprehensive among the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Many are still concerned about the results of the Dayton Peace Agreement. Daily life is also difficult. Unemployment is rampant and the cost of living is very high. Combined with the sporadic payment of salaries by employers and the authorities, life is hard for the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Nevertheless, Alex takes some hope from the slow but steady rebuilding process that is taking place in the cities, particularly Mostar and Sarajevo. We wish her well in her endeavours as co-ordinator of the FIET solidarity project.

The FIET Solidarity Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina