“Monday, December 23, is a significant day for educators in this canton. At 9 a.m., a hearing is scheduled at which the presidents of all four unions will appear in court again, because another security measure has been requested to stop the strike. At 12 p.m. will start a protest march for the seventh time expressing dissatisfaction with the Government of the Croatian National Assembly at the same time, as a sign of solidarity with their colleagues from the Croatian National Academy of Sciences, members of the trade union of secondary and higher education, education, science and culture of BiH and the Independent Trade Union of Basic Education and Education of FBiH will hold a one-hour warning strike,” the statement said.
And just as educators want to be with their colleagues and support them, politicians, as stated in the statement, support each other.
“Thus, the Minister of Education of Sarajevo Canton has already declared this strike illegal and called on the education workers of this canton not to participate in it. We wonder how the ministers know that some strikes are illegal. If we go back a few months, we will also remember the ban on protests by education workers in Sarajevo ‘because of security,'” the statement said.
It is added that these are all “political pressures on the democratic expression of dissatisfaction and efforts to stifle the union”.
“The proof of this is the game played by the representatives of the Assembly of the Croatian National Academy of Sciences, who for days promised to schedule an extraordinary thematic session, meetings of the Collegium with members of the Government, the possibility of solving the problem that has been shaking the Croatian National Academy of Sciences for a month. In the end, they issued a statement in which they gave their support In further discussions with the representatives of the HNK, they also wrote that the right of children to education is one of the basic children’s rights,” said the unions.
They point out that those who have salaries three times higher than them, proudly end the announcement with the salaries of teachers and professors, trying to convince the public that these are good salaries and that educators are unjustifiably dissatisfied, and that they also have an allowance for seniority, a hot meal, and even transportation costs.
“For the umpteenth time, they ‘forget’ that this is the amount without deducted tax, just as they also forget that their seniority allowance is much higher, that along with a hot meal they have funds for the national team, and instead of transportation costs, their own drivers and cars. Yes we are not talking about the fact that the holders of executive power, the Prime Minister and ministers, exercise the right to a positional allowance in the amount of 30 percent of the amount of salary. If the amounts of our salaries are already published, we think it would be fair that who that they also make their own announcements, with all the extras,” the trade unionists state.
They point out that all this is proof of how much their profession is valued.
“We are bribed, humiliated, but also insecure, which is shown by the terrible event in Zagreb, the murders in Sanski Most, Belgrade, the wounding of professors in Lukavac. Our job is demanding, responsible, but also stressful and increasingly dangerous. This attitude towards us will make it a completely unpopular job that quality teachers will not want to do,” the statement said.
The Coordination of Trade Unions also points out that the mentioned problem will not be solved by any court ruling, but by an agreement with which the educators will be satisfied.
At the protests in Mostar, they will be joined by the presidents of the cantonal organizations of both unions who organized the warning strike in the FBiH, union members from Sarajevo, Tuzla, Bihać, Goražde, Travnik, Zenica and Posavina, representatives of the University, kindergarten unions “as well as all those who understand that their fight is not only for their rights, but for better education, a better and fairer society”.
(Vijesti.ba / FENA)
