Fast start for FIET project in Bosnia and Herzegovina, new offices in Sarajevo and Banja Luka

• Strong support from Nordic commerce unions helps FIET open offices in Sarajevo and Banja Luka/Laktashi
• Commerce trade union steps up organising activities
• FIET and Danish social partners will renovate economics college
• BiH social partners develop commerce training dialogue
• Finance trade union prepares privatisation talks

The large FIET project in Bosnia and Herzegovina is developing fast. In July, a project office was opened in Sarajevo, with Alex Rüdig as director and Mersiha Besirovic as administrator. Another office was opened a few days later in Banja Luka in the Serb Republic.

In the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the commerce union has launched an intensified organising campaign.

The old membership registers that were inherited from before the war are now being substituted by new coputerised lists. Although membership numbers are taking a deep dive, the names on the lists are now real members who pay their fees. This is a sound basis for continuing to build up the organisation.

To consolidate the commerce trade union and to prepare for its Congress on 30 August, union representatives are now travelling extensively. Bihac, Zenitza, Mostar and Tuzla are only some of the towns that have been visited.

Hasan Kovac, the union's president is working on the statutes of his union. At the Congress in August, it will be important to create a regional structure for the union, which calls for changes in the statutes.

In the Serb Republic, a similar consolidation of commerce union structures is going on. Bogdan Davidovic, the president of the commercial workers, is also touring the entity. In the Serb Republic, a Congress was held already in June and an executive committee has been set up. At a meeting of this executive committee in Laktashi in July, where Jan Furstenborg and Alex Rüdig from FIET were present, the first entity-wide collective agreement for the commerce sector was approved.

In the FIET project, there is also a dimension of co-operation between the social partners. In July, Sören B. Henriksen, vice president for social affairs of EuroCommerce and senior managing director of the Danish commerce and service employers, joined HK Handel president Jörgen Hoppe and FIET's Jan Furstenborg for discussions with government representatives, employers and union leaders in Sarajevo. The Danish social partners have committed themselves to work for a large project which would furnish and equip Sarajevo's economic college which was completely destroyed in the war.

To promote the social dialogue in commerce in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a conference on vocational training is being planned for Mostar in September. The meeting will bring together employers and trade unionists from different parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina to discuss how they could co-operate in building up a modern vocational training system for retail and wholesale trade professions. The preparations for the conference will be handled by the newly opened FIET project office in West Mostar.

In the finance sector, project activities will now be stepped up. In discussions in July between FIET representatives and the finance union president Fuad Sahacic, it was agreed that a series of meetings be held in Sarajevo during the last week of August, including a meeting with participation of union representatives from the Serb Republic. An important theme for these meetings, which are sponsored by the Nordic finance workers' unions, will be worker participation in the finance sector privatisation process.

Women's activities will play an important role in the FIET trade union project in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They will be launched by a FIET women's conference for commerce trade unionists in Hungary during the first week of September, with participation from all parts and both entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The conference is sponsored by FIET's German affiliates, DAG and HBV and will be arranged in co-operation with Hungarian FIET-affiliate KASz.

The FIET Trade Union Project attracts much media attention in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the FIET mission to Sarajevo and Banja Luka in July, several press conferences were held which resulted in extensive coverage both in electronic and printed media, including a long feature programme on the BiH national television channel.

The FIET Solidarity Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The FIET Commerce Home Page

Our e-mail address: jan_furstenborg@fiet.org