Trade union struggle under neoliberalism: Croatian

experiencesMario Ivekovic

Novi sindikat

Current situation in Croatia

• total market liberalization through the privatization of the state-owned companies and the commons

• liberalization of the labor law:1. legal expansion of the precarious types of

employment2. flexibilization of working time

Trade union response Privatization•lack of serious resistance during the transition period (90s, 2000s) •2013: first attempts to form organized resistance against the monetization of highways and the privatization of public utilities in the City of Zagreb Labor legislation•2010: the coordination of five union confederations collected 800.000 signatures for referendum against the liberalization of the labor law •loss of public support due to the union leadership's compromising agreement with the government

Obstacles for organizing union struggle

• multiplication of unions• inability to adapt to the new circumstances• drastic reduction in the number of

professional union staff• top-down decision making • lack of cooperation with other social actors

Attempts to organize serious resistance: experiences of the Novi sindikat

• institutionalization of the bottom-up approach 1. organizing and supporting workers’ actions, even the

more radical ones2. education and intensive work with union

representatives3. emphasis on the field work4. redirecting finance from social programs

to union activities • expanding cooperation with other actors

Struggles in 2013• with the participation of NS: Domaća tvornica rublja, Croatia

Airlines, sector of humanitarian demining (the most successful example)

• strike for collective agreement in the sector of hum. demining:

3 unions vs. 26 private employers and 1 state-owned company

around 300 strikers spent 13 days at the improvised camp on the city square in Zagreb

results: 1. a branch collective agreement with higher salaries 2. the first salary increase on the branch level since the

beginning of the crisis3. unionization of deminers increased from 50 to 80 percent