BY CATHARINA TIRSÉN
SKOPJE, Macedonia - On the third day of NATO's bombing
assault on Yugoslavia, 2,000 of the 2,500 workers at the OHIS
chemical factory here were laid off. "We were told to go home
and come back after one month, on May 1," said Natalija
Atanasovska.
She works in the sewing shop at OHIS, producing work clothes for the rest of the work force there. Atanasovska has worked at OHIS for 25 years. "There are shortages of raw materials that we get from Serbia," she explained. The factory imports chemicals like PVC and polyacrylic from Belgrade. Most of its finished products, such as plastic, detergent, and paint, return there through barter.
Only the pharmaceutical department of the OHIS factory, where 500 people work, is currently operating. "They say they have raw materials for about two months," said Atanasovska. "Then they don't know what will happen."
The situation here underlines how intertwined economics and politics in the Yugoslav republics - Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia - remain, despite the break up of the federated government in the early 1990s.
Since the recent bombing, "All contracts with Serbia have been stopped and they expect the economic losses to be $220 million the first month and $150 million every month after that," said Jursit Rifat, vice president of the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia. "Besides, now all goods that normally go through Yugoslavia have to go through Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, which means 700 km longer roads, long waits, and taxes at every border."
Atanasovska is not the only one laid off in Macedonia. "Thirty-five thousand workers have been laid off now, and they expect 70,000 more to be laid off later, that is 20 percent of the workforce," said Zoran Velkov.
The Macedonian government owes about $1 billion in foreign debt, most of it left over from the foreign debt of the federated Yugoslavia, which was divided up between the republics. Macedonia became an independent state in 1992. In mid-April, the government here asked to renegotiate its foreign debt with the so-called Paris Club of imperialist investors. Velkov had a small toy shop for the last 10 years and has seen business go up and down depending on events like the war between the regime in Croatia and the rest of Yugoslavia, the war in Bosnia, and the sanctions against the present Yugoslavia, composed of Serbia and Montenegro.
There are also sanctions against Macedonia imposed by the Greek government, closing the southern border. About one year ago Velkov went bankrupt. "Before the sanctions against Yugoslavia, unemployment in Macedonia was around 10 percent. It went up to 45 percent when the United Nations imposed sanctions against Yugoslavia. When they were eased, the economy slowly recovered, and unemployment went down to 30 percent. Now it will go up again," he said.
"This situation is worse than when we were hit by the sanctions against Yugoslavia," said Atanasovska. At that time 20 percent of the workers at OHIS were permanently released, and the others subjected to rotating one-month layoffs, 100 workers at a time. "This time it is worse because we don't know at all what will happen." Her husband, Jordan Atanasovski, had to retire prematurely when the aluminum plant where he worked released 1,100 of its 1,800 workers due to the sanctions against Yugoslavia. Of the remaining 700 workers, 200 are slated to keep their jobs during this crisis, so far.
While laid off, Natalija Atanasovska receives between 55 and 70 percent of her regular wage, minus allowances of 10 percent for food and 5 percent for transport to work that are normally part of her pay check. She has just received 55 percent of 14 days' pay for the first two weeks laid off. Workers here used to be paid monthly, but in recent years they have received only two weeks' pay at a time for lack of funds. Jordan has his pension.
Their two sons, 22 and 26 years old, are both unemployed and not entitled to social security since they are unmarried. So the whole family of four adults have to live on Jordan's pension of 200 DM (1DM = US$0.54) and 55 percent of Natalija's wages. "It is basically enough for food. Clothes and other things will have to wait," Natalija said.
Because of the war, all trade with Belgrade has stopped. The same goes for all other former Yugoslav republics, which together are the number two trading partner with Macedonia after the European Union, since their goods were transported through what is now Yugoslavia.
The OHIS chemical plant was built and designed to supply all of Yugoslavia. Macedonia, which is a small country of 2 million inhabitants, accounts for only 10 percent of its market, while 80 percent goes to the current Yugoslavia, and a big part of that to Kosova.
This situation is similar for all economic links between all the former republics of Yugoslavia. Slovenia supplies a big part of spare parts, Macedonia agricultural products, and Serbia industrial products, for all six republics. Processed products from the more industrialized areas depend on raw materials from the other. One example cited by Velkov was the well-known salami sausage produced in Slovenia, which depends on high quality meat imported from Serbia.
Natalija Atanasovska recounted how the OHIS factory, like many others, has been "privatized." Shares of the company were sold to the workers by government decision, with some money deducted from their pay checks to pay for them.
This has not affected the functioning of the factory. The management runs it as before, with the same formal involvement of workers: management-appointed worker "representatives" on the board. If the management wants to sell the shares however, they have to call together a meeting with all the workers to approve any proposal. There has not been a proposal to sell the mines in Macedonia, which remain government owned.