IWW - Nevidni delavci sveta

Appeal of the Subcontracting Workers

Appeal of the Subcontracting Workers: Slovenia - this is it.

We appeal to the whole public, to the people of good will, to workers in Koper and Slovenia, to all that agree with the statement, that honest work should be fairly payed and respected: support the strike of subcontracting workers of Luka Koper. The strike began on Friday, 29th of July, as spontaneous support to other workers of the port on strike.

Today it must be already evident, that this story is not only about us. It is about all of us. In the face of intolerable working conditions, pressure and precarity, enforced on all of us, we strongly believe that every struggle for better working and living conditions should be supported. This time we are the ones in need of support.

You can contribute in different ways: you can come and join us in front of the port, where we protest day and night. You can help to increase our visibility by having a walk with us on the surrounding traffic surfaces. You can send us a letter of support or you can share with us your problems. We can exchange experiences about the possibilities to improve our working conditions. Anything.

This is how one of our colleagues rightly described the reasons for our spontaneous strike:"Nobody wants to see us, nobody wants to talk to us." We can no longer be invisible. This is why we stopped working. But those that fill their pockets from our work - our bosses - still act as if we do not exist. Even in the last five days. But not for long.

Perhaps we can win this struggle on our own, but together we are stronger. Now we can no longer pretend that we, the exploited and invisible, have any other choice.

workers in front of the port

Koper, August 4th 2011, in the evening