Confederation of Trade Union angry with Solidarity’s lack of support

The Confederation of Trade Unions of Moldova (CTUM) is angry with the second trade union movement in Moldova – “Solidarity”, because it does not support protest actions against authorities which refused to enforce the Wage Law as from January 1, 2007. CTUM head Petru Chiriac told Info-Prim Neo that “Solidarity” did not accept from the start the idea of organising en masse protests. “The Government did not negotiate with CTUM, which embodies education trade unions, but with “Solidarity” that has no connection with employees of this sector”, Chiriac says. When asked if this fact will not determine CTUM to give up the idea of reunifying the trade union movement in Moldova, Petru Chiriac stated that this issue will be discussed in the plenary meeting of CTUM. “We must determine our place in the society in general, to call a spade a spade, to find out who is who and whom one serves: the people, a party, the Government or other political parties”, Chiriac mentioned. The two trade union movements in Moldova announced in late January that they could merge into a single trade union organisation. As unionists say, such actions will allow the trade unions to have a strong organisation in pursuit of an efficient cooperation with the social partners – Patronages and Government. Petru Chiriac has earlier told Info-Prim Neo that the merger could take time, depending on the consensus reached while working out the projects concerning the necessary documents, and on the consensus regarding the observance of the right of workers, trade union rights, right to independence and democracy of the trade unions. While “Solidaritatea” claims that in 2000 it detached itself from CTUM because of some doubtful financial affairs of the leaders of the trade union movement running the organisation at that time, CTUM says that the new trade union movement was created to support the Communists’ Party. “Solidaritatea” has over 400,000 members and 28 trade unions as branches at present. As for the CTUM, it has 300,000 trade union members and 7 trade unions as branches, chiefly members from education, medicine and small business.