Streetnet International
International Alliance of Street Vendors

Moldova

Tamara Bodnari (Moldova)

Member of International Council

Even in her youth, as a student, Tamara liked being amid of things, making friends with colleagues, helping them in different situations. And perhaps that is why at the age of 17 she was first elected as a trade union organizer of an entire faculty comprised of 300 students. The social activities absorbed her and she realized that helping and caring for others is her passion. Since then, she has not parted ways with the trade union movement.

For more than 16 years, Tamara has been in the friendly family of the Trade Union Federation “Moldova-Business-Sind”. Together with other colleagues, she tries to help members of the trade union in every possible way. As a trade union, they consider very important to protect the social rights of people trading in the markets of the country and self-employed workers. They hold joint meetings, trainings, seminars, make proposals in the development of various laws of Moldova. In recent years, work has also intensified on the creation of new primary trade union organizations and they have increased building relations with workers in the informal economy, specifically in matters of gender equality, combating violence in the workplace, urban policy and other topics. Tamara and “Moldova-Business-Sind” are grateful for the help and support they receive as a StreetNet affiliate.

Tamara is married, has two children and a granddaughter whom she loves very much. Her hobbies are organizing excursions and going fishing.

Moldova Business Sind (Moldova)

Date of creation: 25 November, 1989

Creation of the StreetNet International sector – October, 2009

Aims: Protecting the interests of workers in the informal economy sector, in particular – street and market vendors.

Short history: Trade Union Federation “Moldova-Business-Sind” is affiliated to the National Confederation of Trade Unions of Moldova (CNSM).

Creation of the street and market vendors’ sector was established in October 2009 under the initiative of Pat Horn, International Coordinator of StreetNet International, after her visit to the Republic of Moldova.

Newly approved StreetNet Regional Focal Points for Asia and Europe (Moldova, Nepal)

StreetNet welcomes the Nepal Union of Street Traders (NEST-Nepal) and Moldova-Business-Sind (Moldova) as newly established StreetNet Regional Focal Points (RFP) for Asia and Europe respectively.

Recently, at the 2018 International Council meeting, StreetNet leadership approved the recommendation of its affiliates from Asia and Eastern Europe to move the StreetNet RFPs for Asia to Nepal and the RFP for Europe to Moldova.
NEST appointed Brother Narayan Neupane, who has served as a member of StreetNet International Council (2013-2016) as the RFP Contact Person. He will run the RFP work from NEST with technical support from the General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT), with which NEST is affiliated. (more…)

Representatives of small businesses of Moldova threaten authorities with protest actions (Moldova)

13 June 2016

Natalia Suboci, Chairwoman of Trade Union FederationRepresentatives of small Business Association demand from the authorities to introduce a special (fixed) tax for small businesses and to declare from January 1, 2017 a 10-year moratorium on any changes in legislation which relates to promotion of small businesses. They claimed, in case their demands are not taken into account by the authorities, small entrepreneurs would start protest actions, according to a report of realitatea.md.

“While the issue of importance of the business environment to create jobs and capacity building of tax transfers is being discussed a lot and assertively, the actual state of things has not been changing. Moreover, it is expected that from the beginning of 2017 the activity of more than 40 thousand small (street) traders will not be allowed (according to the Law ? 121 as of 29.05.2008 paragraph 5 of Art. 17 these working places will be eliminated).

The situation in small business sector is already complicated due to the discriminatory economic policies: expensive credit resources, bureaucracy, unfair competition, corruption at all administrative levels, aggressive nepotism and therefore incompetent staff in the ministries and departments”, – says Mr. Eugen Roshkovan the Chairman of Association of small business.

The Bill on small and medium-sized enterprises has been submitted to the parliamentary commission. But until now, the content of the document is unknown, no one is interested in a civil society’s opinion on this issue,”- says Roshkovan.

At the same time, he noted that any single principle on the need of small business development is not respected. However, we signed an Association of Agreement with the EU, where in Chapter 10 “Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship” (Articles 62 and 63), the promotion and support of small and medium-sized enterprises is required, in particular it relates to the micro-enterprises.

“Among our other requirements to the authority I would like to emphasize on the abolition of paragraph 5, Art. 17 of the Law, which envisages “Retail trade from the stalls, tents and vehicles at the markets and/or in places authorized by local public administration authority – to exclude from 1 January 2017″. If the authorities fail to meet our demands, we will be forced to once again go to the streets and arrange protest actions”, – concluded the leader of the Association.

Branch trade union seeks support from the StreetNet International

In an interview with a reporter of the Moldovan trade union newspaper “Vocea poporului”, Natalia Suboci, Chairwoman of the Trade Union Federation “Moldova-Business-Sind” noted in this context that those traders who have patents, though are not union members, are in the focus of attention of the Federation, because they belong to the category of small business.

“They belong to the category of street vendors, and in the frames of the Federation “Moldova-Business-Sind” they are affiliated to the StreetNet International, which unites street vendors from around the world to defend their rights in the field of labor and social relations.

Therefore our Federation strongly opposes government’s attempts from 1 January 2017 to deprive a patent from a large number of people who have found their place in small businesses and working legally, fully paying for their patents, without debts to the state”, – noted Natalia Suboci.

From her point of view, the deprivation of their patents would lead to job losses and even greater economic instability.

“We fully agree with the position of Chairman of the Small Business Association Mr. Eugen Roshkovan and ready to cooperate and defend this point of view right up to our participation in the protest actions. We also reserve the right to appeal to the StreetNet International, for our patent holders to get some support at the international level in regard to protection of their rights. Moreover, even in economically developed countries a small business sphere, the base of which are the patent owners, plays a significant role in the country’s economy”, – added the Chairwoman of the Trade Union Federation “Moldova-Business-Sind”.

Source: http://vocea.md/ru/

Moldova-Business-Sind holds Social Solidarity Economy Workshop (Moldova)

All the participants who attended the Social Solidarity WorkshopOn February 25-28, 2015, at the sanatorium Bucuria-Sind Ltd., the Federation of Trade Unions Moldova-business-sind held a workshop on “Social Solidarity Economy”. The activity was also attended by representatives of the trade union of workers of trade, public catering, consumer cooperatives, hotel and restaurant services SindLUCAS (IUF affiliate).

Thirty two representatives of primary trade union organisations from 12 districts, including ATO Gagaziya and Chisinau and Belts cities also attended.This activity was conducted within the FLOW project, which covers 10 countries where StreetNet has its affiliates.

The purpose of the workshop was to introduce international experience in the field of social and solidarity economy for workers in the informal sector, especially street and market vendors and domestic workers.

It was the first workshop on the current subject, where the following materials have been used: ILO Reader "Social and solidarity economy: building a common understanding" (developed by the International Training Centre of the ILO in Turin, published in 2010), materials of the regional workshop 2014 in Baku, as well as ILO Recommendation 202.

The workshop considered such notions, like: "Cooperatives – key actors of the social economy", "The role of the social solidarity economy and social services in the Republic of Moldova" and introduced by two facilitators: Natalia Suboci, Chairwoman of the Trade Union "MOLDOVA-BUSINESS-SIND" and Valentina Mazur Chairwoman of trade union "SindLUCAS".

During the workshop, special interest was given to discussion of the term "social solidarity economy." Workshop participants were introduced to the concept of this notion in times of a current global crisis: the confrontation with today’s challenges, such as high unemployment rates, increasing inequality, unacceptable conditions of people living in poverty and continuing global warming – oblige us to reconsider the economic and social development practices. In such conditions participants discussed, which steps should be taken to form their own economic reality by doing business and creating jobs as well as how to include in the national system of social protection the workers in the informal sector, street and market traders.

StreetNet Resolution on SSE was also discussed during the workshop. It provided a clear explanation of such issues like: social solidarity economy, trade unions and cooperatives – cooperation to achieve common goals. All the participants appreciated the workshop as they considered it to be informative and interesting. The goals have been achieved.

Natalia Suboci
Moldova-Business-Sind
Chairwoman