ARMO employees address open letter to President

Thousands of workers at ARMO refineries in Fier and Ballsh gathered this Tuesday before Fier Prefecture offices in their peaceful protest that has been lasting for several weeks.

Since the blockade without any legal reason and based solely on verbal orders from the tax authorities, a rare case all over the world, thousands of employees working in these refineries and their families have been put out of work.

Outraged by the silence of state structures in defending their rights, workers have decided to address an open public letter to the President of Republic Mr. Bujar Nishani, hoping in a possible solution.

“Dear Mr. President! We address you as the head of Albanian state hoping that you, in compliance with the laws of the State and its Constitution and international laws of civil rights, enjoying all the rights and powers before the law and the citizens of this country, will respond to the current situation since more than three weeks at the ARMO Company. We, the employees of the company, ask you, honorable president, to allow us an appointment through our representatives to inform you on our concerns. As we have made it clear even through a petition signed by hundreds of employees on July 16, 2013, the work at the refineries of Ballsh and Fier has been arbitrarily suspended by the state structures since more than two weeks. Given the fact that our personal and family lives are inextricably linked with these plants, since their construction in the areas of Ballsh and Fier, we inform you that we are now experiencing one of the most difficult situations among our families,” writes the letter read in the public by the chief engineer of the Ballsh refinery Gogo Sava.

During the peaceful protest held in downtown Fier, employees stated that they will not surrender and will not bow before the repression of the state structures that seek to destroy a strategic investor such as ARMO Company.

The protest saw also the support of the leaders of the Confederation of Trade Unions. Its head Kole Nikolla assured that 100 thousand workers who represent this structure will line up on the side of the oilmen for their requests to be met and to put an end to government’s silence and deafness.

“We guarantee you that you are not alone, but you are together with all the workers of Albania. Do not bow your head and do not ask for charity because are fighting for your basic rights. You are asking the fundamental right to work and survive. You are asking for the wellbeing of your children. If the President of Republic will not listen to you, if the President of Republic will fulfill his constitutional duty to provide a way out of such a major problem, then the Confederation of Trade Unions will start a strike involving all Albanian workers. I assure you that you will be supported by 100 thousand members of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Albania,” Nikolla said.

Thousands of employees of the only two oil processing refineries in the country, that in Fier and the other one in Ballsh, owned by the strategic investor ARMO, have not been allowed to work since several weeks as a result of a flagrant and illegal blocking of the activities by state segments that are seeking extralegal benefits at the expense of the interests of the state and the workers.

TV Albanian Screen, 30.07.2013