Workers across borders. A call from Bulgaria
In January 2017 the Autonomous Worker’s Syndicate launched a campaign to migrant workers in EU against exploitation. For the last couple of months, we gathered information from different European countries and prepared leaflets for each one of them, containing detailed information about negotiated salaries in different sectors, working hours and other country specific information. Now we’re starting series of public events to meet workers who are about to go work abroad, give them information, leaflets and contacts with grass roots unions, anti-racist networks and activist groups that work with migrant workers in Europe. We also started a hotline for workers’ signals about exploitation and human traffic.
The main goal for us is to organize the precarious migrant workers coming from the poorest areas in Bulgaria. We want to put their struggles in the context of pan-European social struggles against capitalism. The first step in that direction is the creation of a militant migrant worker’s section of our union. The goal is the section to become strong enough to fight back against traffickers, bosses and exploitation. The section consists mainly of workers that go regularly back and forth abroad and work both in western Europe and in Bulgaria, but also of workers that work permanently on the west, but are willing to participate in organizing migrant workers coming from Bulgaria and the Balkans.
We call for all the grass roots unions and organizations that work with migrant workers to help us with our campaign by sharing the information and give our contacts to migrant workers from Bulgaria in their areas. Also, it will be really helpful, if you share with us any experience that you have with migrant workers from Eastern Europe.
Autonomous Worker’s Union
arsindikat@gmail.com
Hotline for signals: +359 878 609 886
Information about labour rights by country (in Bulgarian):
http://arsold.antonov.space/bg/закони/за-работници-в-чужбина/