The undersigned organizations express deep indignation at the approach of the Government of Kosovo toward the miners of the \u201cTrep\u00e7a\u201d enterprise, who today have entered the ninth day of their strike.<\/p>\n\n
Around 30 miners have sought medical assistance in just the past 24 hours. While their health condition continues to deteriorate due to the hunger strike, the Government of Kosovo maintains an indifferent approach toward a major issue faced by the workers of this enterprise\u2014an enterprise that is consistently regarded as being of great importance for the country\u2019s economic development.<\/p>\n\n
The miners are striking over basic demands \u2013 timely payment of wages, better working conditions, and accountability from the company\u2019s management. These demands are fundamental to the functioning of both the workers and the enterprise, and they should have been met without the need for a strike. Not only has this not happened, but the management has chosen to retaliate against the strikers by suspending five miners currently on strike.<\/p>\n\n
The behavior of the management toward the mine workers is also unacceptable, particularly the publication of photos intended to accuse workers of violating the strike\u2014actions that fundamentally degrade the workers on a human level. The management should focus on addressing and finding ways to meet the workers\u2019 demands. No one goes on a hunger strike without a reason.<\/p>\n\n
Media outlets have reported that the Minister of Economic Development, Ms. Artane Rizvanolli, failed to appear before the Committee on Economy, Industry, Entrepreneurship, and Trade in the Assembly of Kosovo. The Government should have openly supported the workers’ demands and held the management accountable.<\/p>\n\n
Overall, the conduct of this government toward unionized workers has been brutal and unacceptable\u2014starting with its approach to the teachers\u2019 union strike earlier on, and continuing with the current lack of dialogue with the Trep\u00e7a miners. This approach seriously undermines workers\u2019 efforts to claim what is rightfully theirs and causes long-term harm to trade unionism.<\/p>\n\n
The undersigned organizations call on the company\u2019s management and the Government to urgently open dialogue with the strikers and to explore, as soon as possible, opportunities for compromise in order to address the workers\u2019 problems and demands.<\/p>\n\n
Institute for Social Policy Musine Kokalari<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Center for Information, Critique and Action \u2013 QIKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Quality Institute for Research, Analysis and Training \u2013 iCHAT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Divine Woman NGO<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Institute for Affirmative Action<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n November 1, 2023<\/p>\n\n CSOs call on the company\u2019s management and the Government to urgently open dialogue with the strikers and to explore as soon as possible the possibilities for reaching a compromise in order to resolve the workers\u2019 issues and demands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-ecology","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musineinstitute.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musineinstitute.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musineinstitute.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musineinstitute.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musineinstitute.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6892"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/musineinstitute.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6893,"href":"https:\/\/musineinstitute.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6892\/revisions\/6893"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musineinstitute.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musineinstitute.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musineinstitute.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musineinstitute.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"