The Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia (SSM) staged a protest on Saturday, demanding a minimum wage of EUR 600 and a linear increase of EUR 100 for all, because, as was said at the protest, the workers are not in favor of the legal increase in the minimum wage of MKD 1,600, but for decent wages that they have earned.
SSM president Slobodan Trendafilov on the protest, which started in front of the Rabotnichki Dom (Workers’ Haven) in Skopje and ended in front of the government building, said that 160,000 workers in the country receive wages below the poverty line, and that is a good basis for the need to increase their wages.
However, although SSM announced the protest as a fight for workers’ rights in Macedonia, people were seen in the field wearing T-shirts with the inscription of the opposition party, which supports the accusations from the government that the protest is a political, not a union initiative.
On the other hand, supporters of the protest claim that demands for higher wages are a real problem facing many workers in Macedonia and that the presence of individuals with different political beliefs does not mean that the protest was directly organized by a political party.
