UNION OF INDEPENDENT AUTONOMOUS TRADE UNIONS OF MACEDONIA Electronic informant
UNASM newsletter Year 2011, no.01
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December-January 2010/2011
The role of UNASM in the Macedonian trade union movement
CONTENT: *UNASM against human trafficking *UNASM strengthened its role in EZA *UNASM in the fight against poverty * Declare illegal work *Activated the youth community! *Info Mobbing
The Union of Independent Autonomous Trade Unions of Macedonia (UNASM) is a trade union organization registered in 1991 and formed as a result of the new democratic society. UNASM was established by the Independent vocational trade union of engine drivers of Macedonia, EMO from Ohrid and the Autonomous mining trade union and “Zelezarnica” from Skopje. The main objectives of UNASM are: building more strong and independent trade union movement dedicated to organizing, collective bargaining and promotion of progressive laws; -Ensuring better life and decent standards of living, decent and available health protection and social security,- Enhancing the standards of living of the retired people and the socially endangered families; -Equal opportunities for everyone regardless of sex, faith, age, education, ethnicity, sexual orientation and improvement of the social and economic situation, -Cooperation with free and democratic trade union organizations from Europe, USA, Asia etc;- Right to creation of free and democratic trade union movement, forming of progressive coalitions, networks with similar trade union organizations dedicated to social and economic justice, promotion of human and workers’ rights. UNASM made its first steps in the history of the Macedonian trade union activities with organizing massive strikes with the workers in EMO from Ohrid in 1989. The leaders of these strikes were punished and harassed by the police. Some of them regained their work places and some of them were expelled from the leadership of the firms. UNASM built its on structure which encloses six federations with 170 trade union organizations, in 1999 the Women’s Organization within UNASM was registered, in March 2007 the Youth section started performing its activities. Later, this section transformed into Youth Trade Union Organization within UNASM. There was also initiative for establishing a trade union of retired people. UNASM has 64000 of whom 15050 (23,5%) are women and 48950 (76,5%) are men. The number of delegates at the last Congress of UNASM was 230 of whom 188 are men и 42 are women. UNASM is active through undertaking activities, organizing conferences, congresses etc, and therefore in 1999 UNASM became member of WCL and in 2006 , UNASM became the only trade union organization from the Republic of Macedonia with the right to vote in ITUC, in 2009 UNASM obtains help and support of CNV Internationaal from the Netherlands through the programme on institutional development, expertise and education and in 2010 UNASM became a full member of EZA from Germany.
Famous quotes “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning” Albert Einstein
UNASM undertakes concrete activities in the society for promotion and enhancement of workers’ rights.
President of UNASM, Mr. Slobodan ANTOVSKI
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Trade Union organization of the Women’s Organization within UNASM The Trade Union Organization of the Women’s Organization within UNASM (SOOZ) is formed as a legal entity and acts within the limits of UNASM. The establishment Women’s Organization made a great contribution to the inclusion of women in the trade union movement in Macedonia.
-SOOZ acts at a local level and Women Sections are formed within the regional organizations of UNASM (Prilep, Skopje, Delchevo, S t r u g a a n d O h r i d ) . -The first SOS line for helping victims of mobbing at the workplace has been working
SOOZ promotes and enhances the trade union spirit of women and at the same time it strengthens their capacities for protection of discrimination and mobbing at the work place. -SOOZ priorities are: decrease of family violence and sexual abuse at the work place. During its expansion the Program for women led to increase of the number of women who take part in the activities performed by UNASM. -SOOZ is part of the decision making organs when decisions are made by UNASM.
The phone number of the SOS line is 023220252. - SOOZ has a lot of friends from former Yugoslavia and from the European trade union organizations that support the work of the Women’s Organization, particularly CNV Internationaal from the Netherlands. - SOOZ organizes different kinds of activities for its members, such as debates, trainings, seminars, workshops for promotion and enhancing women human rights in the trade union movement in Macedonia.
within SOOZ for two years and it was supported by the Danish trade union CRIFA and from 2011 it is supported by CNV Internationaal.
UNASM strengthened its position in EZA The European Center for Workers’ Questions (EZA) promotes the social, political and cultural values in trade union organization through research and promotion of social dialogue thorough legal processes and issues that refer to workers. In October UNASM became a full member of EZA and by that it srengthened its position in the cooperaion with the EU institutions and organizations in the promotion of workers' questions. .
UNASM in the fight against poverty UNASM took part in the realization of the campaign for better position of the citizens in Macedonia in the fight against poverty that is implemented by the Macedonian platform against poverty. The aim is to make a contribution to the repression of poverty in the society and possibility for all the citizens to have decent and better quality of life. UNASM is member and foun-
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Youth Trade Union Organization (YTUO) within UNASM The Youth Trade Union Organization (YTUO) within the Union of Independent Autonomous Trade Unions of Macedonia (UNASM) exists since May, 2007. The objective of YTUO is promotion of trade union values between young people, promotion of youth issues in the decision making process and acquiring new work places on the labour market, as well as protection of workers’ rights. During its advancement YTUO made enough friends and collaborators from the youth trade union organizations from Europe, as well as from the region of former Yugoslavia and friends from the business sector and the civil sector in the Republic of Macedonia.
YTUO is very grateful to the National Federation of Christian Trade Unions in the Netherlands – CNV Internationaal МСО for their support for the Youth Program within YTUO and for the realization of the project “Social Service Clubs”.
Declare illegal work Withholding workers’ registration, i.e. the illegal work, stimulates gray economy. Gray economy destroys the competitiveness of firms and individuals and represents illegal advantage of all those who do not fulfill legal obligations. It slows down the development of the country and hinders the economic progress. Illegal work creates disloyal competitiveness, damages business
and conscious employers who take care of their employees. As a consequence there is a bad inflow in the health, pension and social
funds which damages all citizens of the Republic of Macedonia. Let’s prevent illegal work in order to protect good employers from disloyal competitiveness and to provide all employees with security. That is a profitable way for everyone- workers do not have to worry about their security, business advances and along with it, the economy develops.
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Active youth community! In the frames of the Youth Program from 2010 to 2013, the Youth trade union organization within UNASM will realize the project: “Social Service Clubs” supported by the Dutch trade union
CNV Internationaal. The project objective is to build a social and trade union spirit for the young population in the Republic of Macedonia. The worthiness of the program is to promote and tackle the youth issues in cooperation with the civil and business sector in the Macedonian society.
The realization of the project is carried out in the UNASM’s regional offices (Prilep, Delchevo, Skopje, Ohrid and Struga) through the youth sections.
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UNASM in the fight against human trafficking On Friday, 28th January, 2011, in Stone Bridge Hotel in Skopje the project: ” Improvement of the cooperation between trade unions and NGOs in the prevention of human trafficking” was presented which will contribute to the establishment of effective and fruitful cooperation between “Otvorena Porta” and UNASM, improvement of future services for the workers through creation of an action plan for preventing human trafficking; which would raise the awareness for this problem. Furthermore, the project will lead to better understanding of every other responsibility and role and will initiate establishment and strengthening of the direction mechanisms between the two organizations.This should influence a better access to available services for workers (two potential and indentified trafficked persons). That is why the project foresees activities for identifying areas of possible cooperation between “Otvorena Porta” and UNASM for solving the human trafficking problem with the focus on labour exploitation; creation of mutual action plan and increasing the level of knowledge of human trafficking. The main objective of the project is to assess the capability of ensuring better access for workers to better services through the cooperation between UNASM and the NGO “Otvorena Porta” and strengthening the systems for helping victims. Project’s long term results are: establishing effective and fruitful cooperation between “Otvorena Porta” and UNASM in the field of preventing human trafficking, raising the awareness referring to different forms of illegal trade and labour exploitation of the UNASM’s members The project is supported by CNV Internationaal and it is implemented by the nongovernmental organization “Otvorena Porta”.
UNASM, highly ranked according to the Women’s network NIS According to the Women’s network NIS and ITUC PERC – CEE, UNASM is at the high 2nd place for representativeness of women in trade union organizations with 98,7 percents. To highlight that UNASM promotes and supports gender representativeness in trade union organizations stressing the part of women in the decision making process. At the same time, UNASM pledges for promotion of women’s rights, as well as the fight against discrimination and mobbing at the work place. The criteria for which UNASM is part of this list which is part of the research made by Mrs. Jasna Petrovic is the role of the woman in the decision making process in the Republic of Macedonia.
MOBBING UNION OF INDEPENDENT AUTONOMOUS TR ADE UNIONS OF M ACEDON IA St: Vasli Gorgov no.32, 1000 Skopje Republic of Macedonia Phone number: +38923230307 Email: info@unasm.org.mk Publisher: UNASM For the publisher: Slobodan ANTOVSKI Editor:
Rubincho ARIZANKOSKI
MOBBING is psychological violence at the work place. Mobbing is a new phenomenon. It existed in all organizations, from the primitive ones to the complex factories in the 20th century. The mobbing exists since the existence of humankind, as well as since the existence of the wish for power, the need to humiliate origins from the existence of feelings such as jealousy, hatred, wrath….. The best definition for mobbing is stated in the new French law on mobbing. The definition for mobbing in the French law on social modernization no. 2002–73 from April, 17th, 2002 says:
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Mobbing is psychological violence that occurs while performing certain activities, its objective and consequence is degradation of working conditions which can violate human rights and damage human dignity, damage physical or mental health or to discredit the life and professional future of the victim. Mobbing violates the right to life, freedom, work, dignity, security, equality, health etc.
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Performed trainings on subject: “Family violence and human trafficking” During 2010 the Women’s organization within UNASM organized the second part of the series of trainings for raising the public awareness of the members, citizens and institutions for the human trafficking problem and the problem of family violence as a part of the Women’s Program. It was performed through the regional offices of UNASM (Prilep, Struga, Delchevo). Its aim was for those who attended the training to obtain knowledge about the legal regulations for protection from family violence and human trafficking. The participants pointed out that the problem with family violence is being stabilized because now it has been more publicly talked about than in the past years. With the changes and amendments of the Family law and of the Civil Code of the Republic of Macedonia, family violence is penalized by undertaking appropriate measures and punishments. Но,
But, it may be highlighted that in the field of human trafficking a lot of activities are being undertaken by the institutions in cooperation with the
public sector. Young population should be more educated on the subject to avoid unwanted consequences. Those who attended the seminar also said that human rights must be promoted because lately
they have been quite neglected. The idea of the Women’s Organization within UNASM is to educate as much target groups as possible in the field of women’s rights and freedoms. The Women’s Program is supported by CNV Internationaal from the Netherlands.