The “new” contract denies the right to strike!
AlbChrome and the corrupt trade union of Taf Koleci and Kol Nikolla massacre workers' and the Labour Code
Since a few weeks now, the so-called trade union of Taf Koleci and Kol Nikolla (FSPISH), which has blackmailed the miners and has bargained with their rights, declared that it has signed a new collective agreement with AlbChrome. As expected, this contract infringes on workers’ rights, it is illegal, non-legitimate and violating the miners.
The “new” contract denies the right to strike!
The right to strike is one of the fundamental rights of workers, guaranteed by the Constitution and the Labour Code. For this basic right, workers all around the world have fought for many decades. The corrupt union of Taf Koleci and Kol Nikolla decided to bargain this right for their own personal interests.
It’s illegal!
This “new” contract comes after an already forged contract between AlbChrome and FSPISH that received the blessing of the corrupt state institutions. The representative trade union of the miners working for AlbChrome is the United Miners of Bulqiza Trade Union (SMBB), in which more than 320 miners have joined voluntarily. Therefore it is the right of our trade union to be the side that negotiates and signs the collective agreement. We will pursue all the necessary steps, legal and organizing, in order to obtain this right that has been denied us by breaking the law in the most flagrant manner.
It’s non-legitimate!
As in any previous contract, the miners have been completely excluded from posing their demands. This agreement is the result of the petty bargaining among the directors of AlbChrome and FSPISH. Furthermore, the duration for 5 years of this contract, decided between two sides that have completely excluded the will of the workers, is unacceptable.
It’s insufficient!
A promise was made for increasing wages from 10-13% for the workers. It must be clear that this pay rise is a result of worker’ organizing, protesting and due pressure of the United Miners of Bulqiza Trade Union (SMBB). Nonetheless, this pay rise is insufficient and insulting to the miners. While the work rate has been increasing since 2013, the year when the mine passed under the administration of AlbChrome, for seven and a half years the wages have remained frozen. On the contrary, during this period a number of benefits have been cut, such as regarding the number of years at work or the level of difficulty etc. What makes it even worse is the fact that the corrupt trade union agreed not to increase wages for the remainder of the 5 year period.
It’s violating!
The “new” contract encroaches on many of the rights of the miners that existed before. The previous agreement included, although for the sake appearance, a number of rights that with the new one have been removed entirely, or have been worsened. The denied rights are listed below:
For the bonus payment for the religious holiday of Eid al-Fitr, a number of criteria have been put in place that allows the company to change them in an arbitrary manner and to remove this bonus altogether;
New criteria have been put in place, that may be changed at any moment, so as not to pay the bonus to two of the most productive workers of the month;
The bonus payment for August and New Year’s Day for the workers has been removed altogether;
The Article that obliges the employer to offer work and payment to the employee has been worsened. It easier now for the employer to sidestep this obligation. Making it insecure the continuation of work and payment for the miners;
The number of miners whose yearly summer holidays are paid decreases. With the previous contract, 30 miners received holiday payments. In practice, it was always the members of the trade union and their acolytes that benefited from this, and very rarely any honest miner who truly deserved this. With the new contract this number drops to 20;
The duration of a warning increases. If a warning to a miner before lasted only for 6 months, if another one had not been issued during this time, with the new contract it lasts for one year. This constitutes openly a tool for blackmailing miners who dare to raise their voices for the injustices done to them.
It could not have happened any other way. A trade union that walks over the sweat and lives of the miners, that abducts their membership to a new trade union, that does not have either the will or the face to ask them about their concerns, that abandons to the wind workers’ rights, obviously would bargain with the only through which the abovementioned rights can be achieved and maintained: the right to strike. According to this new infamous contract, for a period of five years, the miners will remain enslaved to fully approve whatever their “trade union” has signed off.
The “new” contract of the old crooks over the blood of the miners is only one of the many injustices incurred. The United Miners of Bulqiza Trade Union (SMBB), as the true representative trade union of the will of the miners, will not cease its efforts until justice is done and until workers will earn their wages, their rights and the dignity they deserve.
Only united we will win against the oppressors and traitors!
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