Will This Week Bring Stormy Negotiations?

Will the last week's conversations between the trade union and Ministry of Culture continue or else, an industrial action?

Is the legitimate trade union fight for bigger salaries of cultural workers taking melodramatic turn? Assistant to Croatian Public Records Office( and wife of the state secretary in the Ministry of Culture) Pavica Antolovic submitted a request for cancellation of her membership in the Croatian trade union for cultural workers. She accuses the chief secretary of the trade union, Ljubica Pilic for her move, who held a press conference before the Public Record Office, where Pavica Antolovic was referred to. Wife of the state secretary thought this move was a lynch and she decided to issue a public statement. Will other members of the trade union follow suit?

Accusation of fraud

Pavica Antolovic's who informed the general public about her decision to cancel membership is not only of a private nature, since she is a wife of a person who, on behalf of the Ministry of Culture held, obviously unsuccessful negotiations with members of the trade union. After all, members of the trade union accused the very Antolovic of incompetently held negotiations and even of a fraud!

Last week’s public demand of the trade union that the state raises the shamefully low salaries of cultural workers for 10 %, turned into a showdown within the trade union, in the manner of 'divide and rule' saying, Vecernji list writes.

Hopeless cultural workers

Trade union members presented ample evidence of the fact that they are underpaid.

People with M.A. and PhD have salaries of 4,500 Kuna, while their job is, for example to conserve Titian’s painting.

Ministry of Culture has simultaneously sent a note to media saying that negotiations with the trade union were not broken off and that they will continue on Monday. In the electoral year no one needs closed Croatian National Theatre, or closed museum, although it is clear to cultural workers that they are not as numerous as professors or teachers who managed to win a privileged status among public servants.