How do pensioners welcome Labor Day? The news that the minimum pensions will be increased by 4.5 percent, that is, that it is not even 30 BAM, disappointed them more than pleased them. They say that in a sea of rising prices, with that money they could not even buy a salad with a kilo of meat. However, while protesting in Tuzla, they remembered the former celebrations on May 1 – Labor Day.
Tuzla was once among the largest industrial basins in Yugoslavia. When May Day came – Labor Day, everyone celebrated, happy and satisfied
“Our greatest pleasure was the May Day wake-up call, the May Day alarm clock when we, as young people, ran to sit on the bench that was decorated with flowers, and the siren that turned, like a fireman’s siren, sounded the alarm. And so it passed through the whole of Lipnica, and we had to get up at 4 a.m. And that was the biggest attraction for us,” recalls pensioner Sead Kovačević.
“Before there was a trade union, there was a workers’ assembly, a workers’ council, a court, you were always protected. We built, built and defended this country. And now we have none of that,” says pensioner Ramiz Šehić.
And Adem Goletić, a former miner at Rudnik Đurđevik, tells us that he cannot believe how human rights have been lost today, how unions protect the rights of employers more than workers. And once upon a time, workers were not only protected but respected and valued.
“Don’t worry. Because in five or six days the advance payment comes from the mine. We got paid twice. And the third was paid, for December 21, for Miner’s Day. (Journalist: How would you compare the rights of workers then and now?) Adem: I’ll do it in just one sentence. This is a slave-owning society today,” says pensioner Adem Goletić.
For pensioners, the fact that they are on the edge of existence is mostly the fault of the political fathers of this country.
“Only his tie, if I were to pay, I wouldn’t be able to buy it for my pension. They still behave like that – everyone loves Bosnia. Some, I won’t say which ones. But they do everything to destroy Bosnia, so that the poor have bread. He has an armchair and is silent,” pensioner Avdija Halilović tells us.
“The first of May remains as a pleasant memory of the former system when people were valued as people and not as cattle, as the rulers treat people today. Therefore, if we were treated as people, we would not be here, we would not protest, we would not ask for anything special. What is most absurd is that we are looking for European parameters, and they offer us African tribes,” said pensioner Vehid.
With great nostalgia, retirees welcome Labor Day, reminding them that today their existence is threatened, and human dignity is trampled upon, BHRT writes.
