By In an attempt to present himself as the most committed advocate for improving the status of employees at Radio-Television of Montenegro, the General Director of the Public Service, Boris Raonić, actually revealed yesterday that he doesn’t even know who he should be negotiating with regarding the salary increases he so passionately claims to support. Namely, Raonić invited members of the Executive Board of the Trade Union of Media of Montenegro to take a polygraph test, implying through this invitation that he had previously negotiated with them over salary increases and that they allegedly blocked the process.
With this move, the General Director of RTCG has shown that he doesn’t even know the name of the union within the Public Service with which he is authorized to negotiate a Collective Agreement. It’s quite clear how he would fare on a lie detector—despite his conviction that he is the ultimate measure of truth on Montenegro’s media scene.
To help him understand how this works in the future, we take this opportunity to clarify: he can only negotiate with the Union of RTCG Employees, which is indeed part of the Trade Union of Media of Montenegro, but is the only entity authorized to negotiate a Collective Agreement within the Public Service. According to regulations, the Trade Union of Media negotiates Branch Collective Agreements (which Raonić also wrongly referenced yesterday, clearly not understanding the terminology), not individual collective agreements within specific media outlets.
Still, we understand why Raonić continues to reference the Trade Union of Media—because it serves as a convenient target for his attacks and slander, through which he attempts to obscure the persecution of union members within the institution he leads.
The Trade Union of Media has informed international organizations dealing with media freedom about his understanding of unions, journalistic autonomy, freedom, and democracy, and expresses its full support for the Union of RTCG Employees in their fight to save unionism in the Public Service—something Raonić is evidently trying to extinguish.
Executive Board of the Trade Union of Media of Montenegro
