Belgrade - Simmering discontent among Serbian workers threatens to explode into "chaos" in the coming autumn, a labour leader warned in an interview published Monday. "Serbia faces an escalation of discontent," the head of the Nezavisnost labour union, Branislav Canak, told the daily Press. "The situation is tense and may lead to total chaos."
With much of Serbia's economy still in state ownership and in poor shape and simple labour stoppages ineffective, workers have resorted to road blockades, hunger strikes and even self-mutilation. A labour protest leader chopped off his own finger in April.
Desperate workers would in future "not cut their own fingers, but somebody else's," Canak warned. "They will turn their anger against those responsible for their humiliating position."
It is not unusual in Serbia for a state-owned company to remain formally active even though it is effectively bankrupt and fails to pay salaries and mandatory employee benefits over several years.
The global financial crisis has hit even strong companies, such as the country's top exporter in 2007, US Steel Serbia, which has turned off all of its smelters amid non-existent demand.
The recession has seen roughly 10,000 jobs shed per month. The April unemployment figure of 760,000 is expected to reach 850,000 later this year in the country of 7.5 million.
