ARMO employees ask from prospect PM Rama to be on their side

Trade unionists have become part of the protests that thousands of ARMO employees are carrying on in their continuous attempts to have their demands met.

In the protest held this Tuesday in front of the Fier Prefecture offices, they expressed their full support to the oil sector workers and urged them to not surrender and not give up their requests.

One of the old trade unionists in Albania, Taf Koleci, in his statement to Albanian Screen, stressed what the prospect Prime Minister needs to do in order to settle this unprecedented problematic situation.

Koleci emphasized that the elected Prime Minister will also receive an official request from the trade union.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Confederation of Trade Unions, Kole Nikolla stated that the Ombudsman needs to have his say on this matter.

“We will address an official letter to the next government, to Mr. Edi Rama, to Albania’s Prime Minister so he can raise his voice for the protection of these oilmen, because he came to power thanks to these oilmen. We will say to the next Edi Rama Government that should never lower their guard in the fight against corruption,” Koleci said.

“We are surprised, not only by the president but also from civil society which makes its presence less felt in these cases, and I have to add here even the ombudsman. The Ombudsman as an institution has been very active, and they should immediately get involved in this issue because the basic human rights are being violated openly here. We have an agreement with the Ombudsman and according to this agreement will inform the Ombudsman for the whole situation and we will demand for his intervention,” Nikolla said.

Trade union leaders said that the suspension of ARMO activities is not just a law violation, but it is also a violation of the right to work and a violation of the human rights for over three thousand employees whose only opportunity to make their bread in this area is oil processing.

“There is no law in the world that gives the right to tax authorities to shut down oil refineries. The damage is colossal. We are dealing here with an infringement of the human principles and rights. They do not ask for anything at all because the outgoing government has involved corrupt people in the oil industry and it has fragmented the sector and it has destroyed it at such a degree that it is hard to reconstruct it,” Koleci said.

“Is there any law or convention that has not been violated? Actually, they have violated all of them. The most interesting here is that the basic human rights are being violated: the right to work, the right to have a wage, the right of life. Here a very dirty game it is being played between the government, on one side, and the business and workers, on the other. Unfortunately, we are astonished by the fact that the President of Republic as the guarantor of national unity, the implementation of the Constitution, has the constitutional duty that in times when there is a rotation of power, he should put their powers at the minimum in terms of human freedoms and rights, firstly, but also in terms of the labor law,” Nikolla said.

The protests of ARMO’s refineries employees are expected to continue without interruption until their requests drafted in an official petition are met.

Up to this point, there is still no official response to this issue, while the protesters are expecting from President Nishani to react over the situation.

TV Albanian Screen, 30.07.2013