A long road ahead for Kosovo’s unions
The challenges facing Kosovo's trade unions, old and new.
|2023.01.31
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Rrahman Jasharaj is the current head of SBAShK, which today has approximately 26,000 members. Jasharaj said that this union was created due to the needs of the time, as an attempt to respond to the attacks of Slobodan Milošević's regime against education in Albanian.
While the public sector, with all its difficulties, has managed to create a history of union organizing, organizing efforts in the private sector have been unremarkable.
"There has been a lack of union solidarity in cases where workers' rights have been drastically violated, where safety at work, the protection of health and life at work has not been ensured, in this sector there is almost no organization at all,"
Osman Osmani, union activist.Minimum wage
According to Brikena Hoxha from IKS, the often clashing relationship between trade unions and the government has influenced the shaping and recognition of the role of trade unions.
"Genuine trade unions must represent the worker in any dispute with the employer, including their legal representation," said Florina Duli.
Halim Kafexholli
Halim Kafexholli finished his bachelor's studies in journalism at the University of Prishtina. He was a beneficiary of the first cycle of the Human Rights Journalism Scholarship, as well as participating in the K2.0 mentoring program. Halimi worked at the magazine Prishtina Insight, part of the BIRN Kosovo organization. He is also a recipient of the Human Rights Journalism Scholarship program (2018 and 2020 cycle). He currently works as a journalist for the publication Nacionale.
This story was originally written in Albanian.