May Day speech by Kristina Ampeva, president of # Loud Union, which is part of the Union of Trade Unions – 5th FORCE
Dear comrades, dear trade union brothers and sisters, dear media,
To all of you present here today, I congratulate you for your courage.
I also congratulate all the unions who today, despite all their different views, have united in the only legitimate fight that a union should lead, and that is the fight for higher wages.
I also want to greet all the unions that did not gather the courage to stand here with us today, fearing that today's protest would change their attitude, so they celebrated May 1st yesterday. And I want to tell them, shame on you, I am ashamed of you too.
Today is not a day in which we protest against the Government, today we celebrate the holiday together with the workers and demand higher salaries from the Government. The people have had enough of unionists in suits who sell out their rights and whose main goal is to sit in someone's political lap.
This struggle we are waging today has no party color, no union logo, it has only one goal - and that is higher wages for workers.
500 euros has long ceased to be a luxury, but rather an amount for a decent living.
We have become a country with a very low standard of living, the highest inflation that has eaten away at workers' salaries, we have become a country with very low wages.
A country in which our officials and politicians from absolutely all political parties receive a 79% increased salary, receive all kinds of allowances and travel expenses. They themselves tell us that this adjustment and increase in salary of 1,800 denars is enough. What irony. People with a 2,000 euro salary tell workers that a salary of 24,000 denars is enough.
They do not understand that without the workers and the taxes we pay, there would be no one. Due to this lack of appreciation of the labor of workers by employers, young people are emigrating, but also entire families because they want to live in a country where they will have healthcare, justice, education, paid jobs, a living wage and not a survival wage. I promise that this is just one of the many protests that will occur if our politicians do not find it appropriate to implement the policies at least from the region, where workers' wages have increased because the most important thing is the standard of citizens, of families. Because everyone in the region has understood that without the working class, there are no taxes, no pensions, no wages, no economy. Because workers are the ones who drive the economy.
Happy May 1st. Workers' Day!
