Yesterday's (April 3) strike at the Šabac Theater went according to plan, although the director, Aleksandra Delic, who was elected two days ago, tried to make it impossible.
Namely, as soon as she was appointed at the session of the City Assembly the day before, despite a petition demanding the opposite, the employees of the Šabac Theater announced a one-hour strike during the scheduled performance of "Madam Minister", with the intention of explaining to the audience their reasons for the strike.
Not competenta
"The strike committee asked for a meeting with the director, because it is in accordance with the law. The meeting ended after seven minutes, because the director told us that she was not responsible for our demands," actor Miloš Vojnović, trustee of the Nezavisnost trade union, told the "Vremena" portal.
The employees demand that the director withdraw the amendments to the Rulebook on systematization, which eliminated four jobs (tailor, dresser, decorator and program organizer) and opened two new ones that, in our opinion, are not needed in our theater (scenographer and dramaturg). They are also asking that Jelena Ivetić, the organizer, whom she fired according to that Rulebook, be reinstated.
"The director announced that she would cancel the performance, and then moved it to 21 p.m. so that the audience would not be with us during the strike," says Vojnović.
Ovations
"However, we invited the audience to come at 20 p.m., we were ready to talk to the audience on the stairs if the director locked the entrance to the hall. Luckily, that didn't happen. We talked, answered many questions, it was extremely useful and touching. At the end of the performance, we got a standing ovation," says Vojnović.
21 out of 31 employees in the theater are against director Aleksandra Delic. They blame her for canceling five performances in February in order to prevent the actors from expressing their support for the students, in March she canceled the advertising of the performances, so less than a hundred seats were sold for each performance, she canceled the premiere, which damaged the theater for 1,5 million dinars, and it is uncertain whether the Theater Spring festival will take place, for which 6,000.000 dinars were allocated.
"We continue to fight, because we know we are right," says Miloš Vojnović.
