Actors National Theatre they called on Prime Minister Đur Macut to get involved in solving their demands. They invited him publicly, on April 7, at a press conference organized by the Singlus union.
Call to Matsu
"We cannot ask for such a thing from the Minister of Culture." Nikola Selaković because the one of our demands his shift, and his actions towards the National Theater are the reason why we are asking for his replacement," he told Vreme. Darko Tomovic, president of Singles.
He does not expect the Prime Minister to respond "although Nikola Selaković is his authority and responsibility, and he should also be interested in the losses of the National Theater caused by the two-month closure of the building." Although, even if he were to respond, Tomović does not expect that he will have understanding for them.
"We all saw how he behaved towards the University: he protects himself and his own."
Material damage
There is no official information about the financial condition of the National Theater due to the decision of Minister Selaković, Chairman of the Board of Directors Dragoslav Bokan and Acting Manager Dragoljub Bajić to close the building for two months as unsafe, but it would be easy to calculate how much the unsold tickets cost during those two months, the fee paid to world star Sergej Polunin since the ballet A bagel in which he was supposed to play was cancelled, then the fee to the Spanish choreographer José Martínez due to the postponement of the premiere Don Quixote, how much it costs to move performances to other stages in order to maintain the appearance that the National Theater is working, and so on.
It is believed that the sum would not be less than 20 million dinars.
Suspension of work
At the mentioned press conference, the possibility of work suspension was also announced.
"It is the last legal possibility. We have respected the Law on Strike until now: we held a dozen one-hour warning strikes where we talked to the public about our demands, no one from the Administration showed any interest in reacting. Instead of dialogue, they are increasingly harsh, which is manifested by pressure on sensitive groups of employees, on security, on technical people, on younger colleagues to 'watch what they are doing', with warnings that jobs are easily lost and difficult to find."
Cancellations
Among the pressures is the threat of replacing the entire Drama ensemble with other people. The young actor has already been accepted on a flat-rate contract, even though he has never played in any National Theater play, and even though there are already actors in the ensemble who have been known to the audience for a long time.
"A colleague was hired not to act, but to perform the duties of a conference host for special events. This is inadmissible," says Tomović.
He does not believe that the Management will realize its threat and fire the current disobedient members of the ensemble in order to employ its own, obedient ones.
"They know it would cause a lot of public outrage," he says.
He states that the Drama of the National Theater will have only two performances this season, while it was supposed to be six, plus one ceremonial academy. The preparations of God's people are underway, the premiere is expected in May. Before it was the premiere of "Ms. Olga", a co-production with the theater in Banja Luka.
Requirements
Singles' requirements are repealing point 7 of article 3 of the Rulebook on labor discipline, increasing the coefficients and improving working conditions, and the dismissal of the Minister of Culture Nikola Selaković, the President of the Managing Board of the Theater Dragoslav Bokan and acting manager Dragoljub Bajić.
On March 6, Singlus filed a criminal complaint against the three of them to the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime because of the damage they caused to the collective with their decisions. They also submitted a request to the Protector of Citizens to check the constitutionality of the aforementioned Rulebook. They have unofficial information that their request is in the Constitutional Court.
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