Leaders of the SSSH trade union Mladen Novosel and New Union Mario Ivekovic rejected on Wednesday the claim by Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic that the costs of the illegal strike of municipal sanitation workers should be borne by the unions, stressing that the unions did not organise it.

After Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic said earlier today that the management of the Zagreb Holding utility conglomerate would report the strike to a court, and that the cost of their wages will be covered by the trade unions, which amounts to €100,000 per day, Novosel told Hina the unions did not organise the walkout, but that they tried to help the workers and guide them.

“As the president of a federation of several unions, I told the workers that some rules must be followed, fully understanding their problem,” says Novosel.

He asserted that the industrial action was the result of ignoring workers’ demands for the past six to seven months, not years, as the mayor claims.

He added that the president of the Municipal Utilities Trade Union, Zdravko Stoilkovic, asked the management of Zagreb Holding and the mayor on a dozen occasions to try to resolve the problems in the Cistoca municipal waste collection company, but they refused.

The workers “have had enough” after the dismissal of their colleagues, claims Novosel.

Ivekovic: Once workers decide to stop work, what can the union do?

The president of the New Union, Mario Ivekovic, rejected Tomasevic’s statement about the payment of strike costs as incorrect. He explained that the unions bear the costs of the strike, namely the wages of the workers, when they organise it an unlawful fashion. But when the workers themselves decide to stop work, what can the union do, he asked.

He stressed that the “trigger” for the work stoppage at Cistoca was the dismissal of three workers, and that the striking workers, in addition to their reinstatement, also sought the resolution of other problems. However, given that they spontaneously stopped working, they did not immediately define their demands.

After defining the demands, they handed them over to the president of the Zagreb Holding Management Board on Tuesday morning, so it was known from the first day of the protest that the return of the fired workers was not the only demand, Ivekovic said.

They submitted 11 requests, the management responded to five, and the other six are not acceptable to it, but they can be negotiated. The workers then requested an increase in pay grades – 1.8 for workers and 2.4 for drivers, after which they said they would be ready to resume working, he added.

Tomasevic is telling lies that the workers are setting an ultimatum and demanding everything, Ivekovic said, adding that consultations are ongoing in Cistoca, and the walkout is proceeding without incidents.

Cistoca workers went on strike on Monday morning in solidarity with three of their colleagues who were dismissed due to a violation of work duties, but on Tuesday, in addition to requesting that the decision to sack their three colleagues be revoked, which was accepted by the management of Zagreb Holding, they presented 11 new demands related to an increase in salaries and material rights.