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24 October, 2011
Today in Belgrade, the ICEM affiliate Federation of Chemical, Non-Metal, Energy and Mining Trade Union will lead a joint main board meeting with two other Serbian unions on the final stages of a three-way merger. The 40,000-member ICEM affiliate will be joined by the Trade Union of Metalworkers and the Textile, Leather and Shoe Workers’ Union in an effort to create a single entity with strong growth prospects in the Central European nation.
The new labour organisation is expected to be called the Trade Union of Industry and Energy and an integration Congress will be held in early May 2012. The 2,000-member Metalworkers’ union was weakened by a split in that organisation in 2010 and the Textile, Leather Union, numbering now only 1,000 dues-paying members, has been plagued by operational difficulties.
Today’s meeting is expected to set an agenda in which the two smaller unions will operate as boards of the Chemical, Non-Metal, Energy and Mining Trade Union until next year’s merger. Zoran Stojanovic of the ICEM affiliate said the action plan being developed calls for a merged union to actively organise and provide updated services to Serbian industrial workers, particularly in the different energy sectors.