FIET Commerce
FIET Central and Eastern Europe
19 August, 1997
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FIET Commerce FIET Central and Eastern Europe 19 August, 1997 The FIET Commerce Home Page |
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FIET's solidarity project in Bosnia and Herzegovina is expanding as trade unions prepare their congresses
Summary of recent project developments, August 1997
The first concrete results of FIET's solidarity project with commerce and finance trade unions in Bosnia and Herzegovina are now beginning to show. In both sectors, the unions have now consolidated their structures. Their first Congresses will be held in Saajevo within the next few weeks. The Independent Commerce Trade Union meets on 30 August and the Finance Trade Union two weeks later. These congresses are also part of the preparations leading up to the Congress of the Independent Trade Union Confederation of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the end of September.
In the Serb Republic, the commercial workers held their Congress already in June where they established a structure for the entity. Bogdan Davidovic was elected president at this Congress, which left space in the statutes for a joint trade union structure covering the whole country as defined by the Dayton Agreement. Also the finance sector workers have established their own trade union structure in the Serb Republic.
In its work with the workers and their trade unions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, FIET strongly supports and strictly follows the Dayton Agreement. Therefore, FIET recognises only one joint trade union structure that covers both the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Serb Republic. Accordingly, FIET has affiliated the commercial and finacial workers trade unions into membership and consider that this membership covers the workers in these sectors in both entities of the country.
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In Sarajevo, the Independent Commerce Trade Union has launched an organising drive, leading up to the union's Congress at the end of August. Union president Hasan Kovac says that the old membership registers from the pre-war period have now been filed away. Today, his organisation is building up a new real membership through intensive travelling in the regions with visits to enterprises and workplaces. With support from the FIET project, the commerce union has employed an organiser which brings its Sarajevo staff up from two to three. These full-time union officers are supported by shop stewards and active union members in different parts of the country.
The union's Congress will be attended by Sture Arntzen, president of HK Norway and president of the international project committee, and by Jan Furstenborg, Head of Department, FIET Commerce and FIET Central and Eastern Europe. They will also visit Mostar during their mission.
In the Serb Republic, the commercial workers have negotiated their first collective agreement, covering the public sector commerce commerce enterprises. At a meeting of the Republican Committee of the union in Laktashi on 19 July, the collective agreement was adopted as were the new statutes of the organisation. It was decided that the union headquarters be based in Laktashi, which is a small town some twenty kilometres outside Banja Luka.
The Republican Committee also confirmed that the union has not closed the door to joint structures and that it accepts the conditions of membership in FIET. They will also continue to participate actively in FIET's joint project activities for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Jan Furstenborg, Head of Department for FIET Commerce and FIET Central and Eastern Europe addressed the executive meeting and reported on project developments. Alex Rüdig, the FIET Project Director in Bosnia and Herzegovina, told the Committee about her approach to the project implementation and established a project office for the Serb Republic in conjunction with union offices.
The Danish social partners in commerce, HK Handel and Dansk Handel & Service, are preparing a large project to help reconstruct the Economics College in Sarajevo. Together with FIET, the leaders of the two organisations visited Sarajevo in July for discussions with the Minister of Education, with cantonal authorities and with representatives of the school. HK Handel president Jörgen Hoppe, the senior managing director of the Danish commerce employers, Sören B. Henriksen and Jan Furstenborg of FIET also held talks with the commerce social partners and with the president of the trade union confederation, Mr Suleiman Hrle. Speaking on behalf of the Danish social partners at a press conference, Mr Henriksen expressed their commitment to seek financing for furnishing and equipping the Economics College, which will be rebuilt by the government still this year.
Women trade unionists can play an important role in the process of implementing the Dayton Agreement and in the reconstruction of Bosnia and Herzegovina. To support them in their difficult task, women's activities have been prominently included in FIET's solidarity project. To launch these activities, a one-week seminar for women trade unionists from all entities and all population groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be held in the Balaton region of Hungary in the beginning of September. Supported by FIET's German affiliates, Deutsche Angestellten Gewerkschaft DAG and Gewerkschaft Handel, Banken und Vericherungen HBV, as well as by the Hungarian commercial workers' union KASz, the seminar will also discuss the experiences of privatisation and economic transition in other parts of Europe.
Privatisation in the finance sector will be a main theme for a FIET meeting in Sarajevo at the end of August, which will bring together trade union leaders from both entities of the country. With the support of several Nordic bank and insurance workers' trade unions, the meeting will also decide on the launching of a joint project. This first meeting of finance trade union leaders from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Serb Republic will also discuss the union's participation in the activities of FIET, which affiliated the finance workers at its world executive committee meeting in Cape Town in May. A high-ranking delegation of the Nordic bank workers' trade union organisation NBU will participate in the meeting and also hold discussions with other trade union leaders, employers and government representatives.
For the first time, there will be a participation from Bosnia and Herzegovina at the annual meeting of Euro-FIET Commerce. The meeting, which will be held in Geneva, Switzerland on 16 - 17 September, brings together top leaders of commercial workers' trade unions from all over Europe. It will deal with a multitude of subjects, including the European social dialogue in commerce, negotiations with leading multinational companies and preparations for the Euro-FIET Commerce Conference in Cardiff, United Kingdom in March 1998. The FIET trade union solidarity project in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is strongly supported by the commerce sector unions in Europe, will also be presented and discussed. The delegation from the commercial workers' trade union of Bosnia and Herzegovina will be composed of representatives from both entities.
FIET has now established its own project offices in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The two first offices were opened in Sarajevo and Laktashi in July. The office in West Mostar, which was established in co-operation with the European Trade Union Confederation ETUC already some months ago, has now started to operate as a FIET project office. Another FIET project office has been established in East Mostar. A further project office will be opened in Zenica in the near future.
The main project office is in Sarajevo, where the project director Alex Rüdig is based. She is assisted by a project secretary, Mersiha Besirovic. In Laktashi, Vesna Kliska works as the FIET project secretary. In Mostar and Zenica, project assistants have been employed.
The project offices in Sarajevo and Laktashi have been established with the support of the Nordic commercial workers' unions. The three other project offices are supported by FIET's Norwegian commerce affiliate HK Norway. Support have also been received by the Italian commercial workers' unions, which have provided the FIET project organisation with a car for the work in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Sarajevo office is located in the trade union house - Dom Sindikata. The temporary telephone and fax number is +387 71 210 931.
The address of the Laktashi office is: Ul. Frushkogorska, 8, Laktashi. The telephone number is +387 78 832 703. The fax number (also telephone) is: +387 78 832 354.
For the time being, the Mostar and Zenica offices can be contacted through the FIET office in Sarajevo.
The FIET Solidarity Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Our e-mail address is: jan_furstenborg@fiet.org