May Day in Sarajevo kicked off with labour protests and this time two of the biggest unions announced their presence in Bosnia's capital – miners and the employees from the metal sector in the Federation entity. The reasons for the protests are job insecurity and low wages.

After some 250 miners arrived in Sarajevo, they came to the Federation (FBiH) entity government building where they stayed for only half an hour during which they expressed their demands.

“What certain parts and structures represent through certain media is unknown to us and we will not accept that,” said Sinan Husic, the head of the FBiH miners’ union.

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“We will not allow solutions to send workers to the employment office. We have heard that there is an intention that certain structures that govern and govern have decided to deal with us in an environment where we are weakest. Through the mine “Abid Lolic” in Nova Bila. If you want a conflict, we are ready and we will not give up, “Husic said, adding:

“We will not allow solutions sending workers to the employment office. We've heard that there is a plan that certain government structures have decided to deal with us in an area where we're the weakest – through the mine “Abid Lolic” in Nova Bila. If they want a conflict, we are ready and we will not give up.”

He noted that they are not looking for charity but a functional state of BiH. The head of the union also announces trains full of brave miners full of sorrow and pain arriving in Sarajevo to “protect what's theirs.”

“Certain parts of the FBiH Government and the Elektroprivreda BiH (the parent company of the consortium consisting of the power company and seven mines) have expressed their readiness to show strength and power in the Abid Lolic mine. We offer our answer today. If it came to that and if it’s really their ultimate intention, we are ready for that conflict,” Husic said in front of some 250 miners who came to the short protest in Sarajevo.

Over the past several days, several media outlets published a letter from Elektroprivreda BiH (EP BiH) sent to several mines from their group urging miners to go to early retirement, promising them some € 7,500 in severance pay.

This was understood as the first step in reducing the number of miners in the group, for which the parent company says there are over 2,000 more than their revenues can cope. The Elektroprivreda company management said they will have to reorganize most mines so that the number of employees is reduced in order to make them profitable again. If this does not work, some mines will have to file for bankruptcy, the EP BiH said.

Tolerance will turn to workers’ revolt

Several hours after the miners, some 50 workers from the metal sector gathered in front of the Trade Union building in Sarajevo. Their motto is “our tolerance will oppose your arrogance with a great workers’ revolt.”

Radnici traže svoja prava protestnom šetnjom @N1infoSA pic.twitter.com/Uc4gdiR818

— Semir Mustafić (@MustaficSemir) May 1, 2021

“Workers live on minimum wage, we are neck-deep in debt. Today, we want to send a message to everyone about the situation on the ground. Being a worker in BiH today is very difficult because of the mobbing at work. The youth is going abroad because they don't see anything positive [in the country]”, said one of the workers from the Metalworkers’ Union.

“I want to tell the authorities that the Economic and Social Council of FBiH is blocking our hourly rate below the average, which is the lowest that one worker can get. I don't know who will be left in this country because all the youth are moving abroad,” his colleague added.

“Tolerance will turn into a workers ‘revolt if workers’ rights are not respected,” they noted.