The seven-day strike of Serbian theaters, the first in the history of local theaters, has ended, the demands have not been met and - what next?
Darko Tomović, actor and president of the Actors' Union of the National Theater in Belgrade, told FoNet that employees in culture will continue institutional and extra-institutional pressure for better working conditions in that area and for the fulfillment of the demands of students in the blockade.
He believes that a good climate for culture inevitably arises when there is a good climate in the country.
"We will continue the pressure on two fronts." One is the conditions for culture, and the other is leaning on student demands, for the simple reason that these two things cumulatively lead to a climate when society and the state will really be able to organize themselves, when everyone will find their place in it and be protected by the same state. We are witnesses that this is not the case now," Tomović said.
SNP Orchestra
Colleagues from other sectors in theaters are not giving up either.
Members of the Orchestra of the Serbian National Theater in Novi Sad announced on Friday that they are suspending work because "waving red gloves is no longer enough."
"Given the current social context, we believe that there is no basis for conducting a dialogue with the Ministry of Culture that would be based on mutual trust, sincere intentions and striving for long-term, systemic solutions." That is why we distance ourselves from the negotiations that the unions are currently conducting with the Ministry", says the orchestra of the SNP opera.
They demand the return of all deleted artistic jobs to the level of systematization of SNP jobs from April 9, 2012. Also "creating a new job catalog in accordance with the specifics of each artistic field, in order to ensure a fair distribution of job positions, as well as the drafting of a completely new Regulation, with the active participation of experts from all art institutions, professional, responsible and transparent planning and preparation, with a special focus on the specifics of artistic work".
"As part of the SNP, one of the oldest and most important cultural institutions in the Serbs, we remain committed to the fight for the preservation and appreciation of cultural heritage, as well as for a society in which art, education and culture take their rightful place," the announcement concludes.
The first consequence of the Orchestra's strike is the cancellation of the opera "Bohemia" scheduled for February 25.
