The start of a multiethnic trade union center in Kosovo

A new milestone in the development of the Kosovo trade union movement

With the support of FNV Mondiaal in 2004 a trade union development and innovation programme was started with the Kosovo BSPK, which continued for several years. It was executed in close cooperation with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and especially with the help of the excellent colleagues from the regional ITUC office in Sarajevo. The programme has produced a number of positive results. In 2010 a new milestone on the road of our mutual cooperation was achieved, with the start of a multiethnic trade union centre under the joint responsibility of SBASHK and SOK. FNV-policy advisor, Leo Mesman, speaks about its development.

Hajrulla Gorani, oprichter van BSPK, de vakcentrale van Kosovo

First of all, I would like to thank the presidents of SBASHK and SOK for inviting me to say a few words on behalf of the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation FNV and its Foundation for International Solidarity, FNV Mondiaal. The opening of this Centre is a milestone in a long-standing process of contacts and cooperation between the trade union movement in Kosovo and the Netherlands.

Start co-operation BSPK and FNV

The first contacts between the FNV and the trade union confederation BSPK date already from the beginning of the nineties of the last century. I still have very vivid memories of my first visit to the BSPK in March 1992, as a member of a small delegation on behalf of the European Trade Union Confederation. The aim of our solidarity mission was to strengthen contacts with the BSPK and to discuss possibilities for supporting the BSPK. We were alarmed and shocked by our findings on the massive violations of workers’ and trade union rights in Kosovo in those dark days of occupation, discrimination and repression. This visit also meant the start of bilateral contacts and cooperation between BSPK and the FNV.

The first president of the BSPK, Professor Hajrullah Gorani, visited our country and our union several times during the nineties, unfolding his diplomatic skills to win our hearts and minds. At the same time a very intensive cooperation was developed between the education unions affiliated to both confederations, SBASHK and AOb. Later SOK also joined this cooperation.

Leo Mesman, FNV-poly advisor for Central
and Eastern Europa, author of this article

During the nineties FNV and AOb undertook several activities to inform the Dutch public on the worsening human rights’ situation in Kosovo and to appeal to the Dutch government and parliament for taking appropriate international action. This was done together with peace and human rights organizations and refugees from Kosovo like our late trade union colleague and friend Mufail Zariqi. After the events that brought the political changes in 1999 new forms of solidarity and cooperation were needed. But it took some time before the focus on both sides had shifted from the workers’ and trade union rights problems to the issue of supporting the strengthening and modernizing of the structures and activities of the BSPK in a new political environment.

Trade union development and innovation

With the support of FNV Mondiaal in 2004 a trade union development and innovation programme was started with the BSPK, which continued for several years. It was executed in close cooperation with the International Trade Union Confederation, and especially with the help of the excellent colleagues from the regional ITUC office in Sarajevo. The programme has produced a number of positive results, like the setting up of an efficient and transparent system of membership administration. It also helped BSPK and its social partners to start addressing the issue of informal workers’ rights. Furthermore, the project activities have helped our BSPK colleagues to develop trade union policies and skills, to strengthen the position and participation of women and youth, to build forms of cooperation with other trade unions in the South-East European region and to become part of the international trade union family. To our regret, it has not been possible to maintain trade union unity in Kosovo.

As I said, today we celebrate a new milestone on the road of our mutual cooperation, with the start of this promising and unique initiative: a multiethnic trade union centre under the joint responsibility of SBASHK and SOK. The project is supported with funds from the FNV Trade Union Co-financing Programme, supported by the Dutch Ministry of Development Cooperation and from the Fund for international solidarity of the AOb. The president of the AOb will say more about the role and commitment of the AOb, during the preparations and implementation of the project.

I would like to say a few words why FNV Mondiaal has decided to support your initiative and what we hope and expect from it. During the preparatory talks with AOb and its counterparts in Kosovo, from the very beginning, we have understood that this was a plan with a vision. The idea to establish this multiethnic centre reflects a high sense of social responsibility of its two founding organizations SBASHK and SOK and their belief in the necessity and possibility to build both a democratic and tolerant society and a system of quality education. Above all, it is an example of civil courage that, hopefully, may inspire other parts of society. The proposal gained even more confidence on our part when we were informed that SBASHK and SOK had won the political and material support from the Directorate for Education of the Municipality of Prishtina and the Ministry for Education, Science and Technology. The FNV is very pleased with this indispensable support and commitment of these authorities. We consider it a clear and wise example of good practice in the field of social dialogue!

Interethnic reconciliation, professional qualification and capacity building

As I have said before, we realized from the very beginning that this is a plan based upon a vision. The vision namely that teachers, schools and education unions have their own responsibilities and  dispose of unique possibilities to bring citizens from different religious and ethnic backgrounds together and to help them to overcome the fears and prejudices that prevent the building of a common civil society. The FNV Mondiaal Board fully supports the three main goals of the centre, namely interethnic reconciliation, professional qualification of teachers and capacity building of trade union movement, especially in the field of human and trade union rights. We are aware that these are enormous challenges under the circumstances in Kosovo and that they can and will not be reached within a short period of time. In our own society in the Netherlands a fierce debate is taking place how to reach a proper balance between shared values, needed for a well-functioning of any society, on the one hand and the basic rights of cultural diversity and identity on the other. Especially in this respect the bilateral cooperation in this new Centre might become of mutual benefit to the Kosovar and the Dutch trade unions. We see this Centre also as an opportunity for the whole trade union movement in Kosovo to enhance its image, role and influence in the society.

I wish everybody involved good luck and I hope that, by the end of the first programme year, we will be able to look back on positive first results and that a firm base will been created for continuing our joint efforts to make something beautiful of this Centre! Let the good work that will be done inspire also others to join our efforts to invest in a better future for Kosovo and its inhabitants!

Leo Mesman,
Pristina, 2010

(Speech at the Opening Ceremony Multiethnic Trade Unions Centre SBASHK – SOK
25 January 2010, Prishtina Kosovo)