Brnabic invites Fiat workers to cease striking – Unions sticking to demands

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic has invited Fiat workers, unions and the strikers board to cease striking so as to start negotiating and said that Serbia, Fiat and the workers themselves have lost a lot during the strike and that not another minute can be wasted.

Brnabic said to the workers that she guaranteed, as the prime minister, that she would negotiate with them within an hour of their halting the strike, and at the highest level, at the government, too, with hers and the presence of Minister of Economy Goran Knezevic and the Fiat management.

– Let's talk as three responsible parties – the employer, the government, as a minority partner, and the strikers board. Let's talk about what is to be done in the next three years – Brnabic said for Tanjug.

She emphasized that neither Serbia, nor the Fiat workers, nor the company itself, along with its subcontractors, had a minute more to waste.

– We've lost a lot, the workers have lost the salaries for the period in which they've been striking, Fiat has lost its production, the subcontractors have lost a part of their work and their salaries. Serbia is losing a part of its GDP each day due to the strike and we are incurring losses when it comes to export as well. We don't have a minute more to waste – Brnabic pointed out.

She therefore appealed to the Fiat workers, the strikers board and the unions to act with responsibility in making their decision.

– I'm asking them to respond to my appeal and for us to finally start negotiating with Fiat about the collective contracts for the next three years, which will secure jobs for them in the period as well, providing stability to their families, to the subcontractors, Kragujevac and Serbia – the prime minister said.

She reminded that Fiat's global practice was not to negotiate with unions during strikes.

Brnabic emphasized that the company had fully honored the collective contract in effect and added that, in spite of those contracts, the workers were striking, meaning, as she pointed out, that collective contracts are not honored in Serbia.

Nevertheless, the head of the strikers board, Zoran Markovic, said to the press in Kragujevac on Monday, July 10, 2017, following the meeting with the 2nd shift workers, that the workers had accepted the decision of the Autonomous Union and the Independence Union not to stop striking until they receive a satisfactory offer from the employer regarding the four demands.

In the meantime, the union of metalworkers of Italy and the workers in the Italian Fiat also provided support and expressed solidarity with the strikers at FCA Serbia in Kragujevac.

FCA Srbija Kragujevac

Vlada Republike Srbije

Fiat Chrysler Serbia

FCA

Ana Brnabic

Fiat

Fiat strike

Goran Knezevic

Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions of Serbia

collective contract

Zoran Markovic

Independence Union

union of metalworkers Italy