Union: Yura Corporation and Authorities Responsible for COVID-29 Flare-up in Leskovac

Yura factory (BETAPHOTO/Sasa Djordjevic)

The United Trade Unions of Serbia Sloga said in a statement on May 18 that South Korean company Yura is responsible for the COVID-19 flare-up in Leskovac, because of their inhuman disregard for the recommendations of the medical professionals, which led to an increased number of infected workers in the company, but also in other factories in Leskovac.

The union said that they had called many times on the authorities, the Labor Inspectorate, the local self-government and the crisis headquarters to support Yura factory workers and thus protect all those whose lives were jeopardized. It was clear from the response of these institutions that “the foreigners can walk all over them [the workers] and they [the workers], being poor, will work under any conditions,” the union added.

“The result was the flare-up of the infection in Leskovac, and now there are people infected in other factories as well,” the statement also said.

Sloga advocates for the preservation of every workplace, better wages and good working conditions, but it is not in favor of the authorities fawning over foreign companies and allowing them to abuse poor Serbian workers, the announcement said.

Two new contagion hotbeds in Serbia have surfaced in the past few days. A large number of Yura factory workers have been infected in Leskovac, as well as the employees of two private companies in Vranje, one producing furniture, and the other manufacturing footwear. Because of the rise of the number of infected people in Vranje, the city reopened a COVID-19 hospital which had been closed down at the end of April.