The Trade Union of Young Workers at the Szeged University (SZTE FIDO – with Hungarian acronym) held its first meeting on 28 May 2014.
Gábor Holecz, vice-president for the public sector of MOSZ, also participated at the event, talking about the situation and role of trade unions, with special emphasis on his own organisation, the Trade Union of Customs and Finance Guards. A further guest speaker was Imre Szabó, head of the Youth section at MOSZ, placing the emphasis on the need for the young generation to increase its involvement in trade union work, supporting his arguments with several examples from the past in the context of higher education.
The chair of the organisation, Zoltán Kalmár, representing the Faculty of Music at SZTE, talked about the problems of the employees of the university, and presented the introduction of his organisation, which we will quote here. „ As a young lecturer/employee you often encounter specific problems of employment, which then you consider as normal or ordinary, therefore you accept them. Limited freedom you cannot dispose of. As a young colleague, you are expected to work overtime, which is neither paid, nor taken into account when allocating holidays. Your colleague in public education earns more than you, even without a scientific degree. Despite all your efforts, you make no professional advancement. Should you find these problems familiar, do not hesitate and join our trade union. As it is known for a long time, we are to be blamed for the large part of austerity measures and sanctions, retaliation, because we let them do it and did not raise our voices against them. Stand up for your rights, join FIDO!”