In a silent action, Zadar students supported the strike of the Zadar cafeteria employees. Fifteen employees of the Student Standard Agency are protesting to ensure that both the point value and the number of points are included in the collective agreement, which would allow for salary negotiations.
Tomislav Kiš, the strike organizer and trade union secretary of Novi sindikat (which supports the Independent Union of Student Center Employees), says it is humiliating and insulting that the salary level is determined by the Agency’s Governing Council rather than a collective agreement:
“It’s totally illogical and unreasonable. It is a classic attempt to humiliate people—to set their salary as someone pleases without talking to them about it at all. This is an example of a total violation of social dialogue. If someone does not want pay to be included in this collective agreement, then who needs it?”
He pointed out that there must also be a systematization within the collective agreement, meaning that the salary should be determined by the sum of the number of points and the value of those points. “And this should not be decided without our consent,” Kiš said.
However, the struggle for a collective agreement is not the only backbone of this strike. “We are being trampled on as human beings because we are ‘ordinary’ auxiliary workers. That’s enough!” said Velida Matijević, a worker from the student cafeteria and a Union commissioner. She stated that the kitchen workers had been sent multiple times to the field at the “Garden” facility to harvest apples and were even made to clean various private apartments—for free.
“We are being sent all over. We are sent to work in the fields, for harvests, and even in other people’s houses. We can’t say anything because we are just auxiliary workers; who are we to speak up? We were told to just endure and work. We are fed up with others setting our salary levels—always downward—while others’ wages rise.”
The students are standing with them, which they demonstrated yesterday by leaving a bomb on the tables in support, showing whose side they are on. SDP City Councilor Danijela Vukoša also sent a letter of support to the women and workers in the student cafeteria. She pointed out that the strike showed courage by not allowing Rector Dijana Vican to decide on their rights as if they did not exist. “You are fighting for your right to collective bargaining and you have shown that you have a backbone,” Vukoša said. The Union says the strike will continue until their demands are met.
The text was originally published on October 19, 2020, on the Noviradio.hr portal under the title: ‘STRIKE IN THE STUDENT CANTEEN: We want our wage levels set in the Collective Agreement, not decided at someone’s whim!’
