Lithuania: BWI shows solidarity with the Anti-New-Labour-Code Protesters in Vilnius

30 June 2016 10:55

 

Attending the protests against the anti-new labour code with its affiliate the Federal Board of the Federation of Lithuanian Forest and Wood Worker Trade Unions (LMPF), Ambet Yuson, General Secretary of the BWI called for the workers to unite: “Many workers around the world are experiencing tremendous changes and many neoliberal governments are changing the labour laws and reducing workers' rights. Precarity is a global trend, and it is the kind of globalization that we don‘t want. And the situation of the workers threatens to get even worse." The protest was held on 27 June 2016 in Vilnius. 

Yuson added: "Look at the statistics – 75 mln. of young workers are unemployed. Look at Europe – 12 mln. are unemployed, including many young people. Many of those employed have temporary, informal, zero-hour contracts. These are the precarious workers, they have no social security. If you look at the overall picture – more than 50 percent of the workers are poor, informal, temporary, and precarious. It means they are deprived of their rights, their pensions, and thei social security. But if you look closely at other countries such as India, you’ll see that 90 percent of the workers are informal there. There are 9 bn. people in India of whom 90 percent are informal and precarious workers! This is really very bad and I think the only way to address this is for the workers around the world to unite." He concluded by saying: "I think you should continue this protest and we will do our best to support it. We have to communicate it to all the other workers around the world.” 

He recalled that 1200 construction workers died building stadiums for 2022 World Cup in Qatar. He also mentioned that 11 worker’s deaths occured during the building of the stadium for the football tournament during Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro on 5 August 2016. He called to pay attention to these facts instead of merely seeing the festive side of the events. Yuson stressed that the workers of the world must unite and continue their protests.