Protest of students and academics in front of the Ministry of Education in Belgrade and a banner with the inscription "General strike", January 19, 2025.

"General strike" is the slogan heard more and more often in student protests in Serbia, which have been blocking faculties across the country for two months now.

Thousands of people called for it on January 20, during a joint rally of education workers and students in central Belgrade.

On January 22, academics made an official call for citizens to engage in “a general civil disobedience” on January 24, which means a complete cessation of work and non-participation in market transactions throughout the day.

Staff at several schools in Serbia have been on strike since January 20, demanding better working conditions, as well as meeting the demands of students who, through blockades, are seeking criminal and political accountability for the deaths of 15 people from the collapse of a shelter at the Novi Sad Railway Station on November 1.

Student protest in front of the Constitutional Court, Belgrade, January 12, 2025.

Lawyers say that the existing law on strikes in Serbia is inaccurate in defining a general strike and is not in line with international standards.

What is a general strike?

The Law on Strikes was adopted in 1996, during the time of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This act states that a strike means “a work stoppage, organized by employees, with the aim of protecting their professional and economic interests.”

According to this law, a strike can be organized in an enterprise or other legal entity, namely in the division of employees or the employer, in a specific branch or activity, or as a general strike.

"The decision to enter into a general strike is made by the highest body of the trade union. The decision to strike by employees of a branch or activity or to go on a general strike is submitted to the competent body of the relevant employers' association, the founder, as well as the competent state body," states the Law on Strike in Serbia.

These are all the provisions that mention the general strike.

"This law is almost 30 years old and has not been amended in line with new international standards," Mario Relanović, a research associate at the Institute for Labor Law in Belgrade, tells Radio Free Europe.

In Labor Law theory, he says that a general strike means a work stoppage in various activities and industries, in the public and private sectors, for the purpose of expressing dissatisfaction with certain policies, legal solutions, practices, and the like.

"So, the essence of the concept of a general strike is that it does not refer to one employer and one industry, but calls on the entire working world to stop working. Our law on strikes regulates strikes against individual employers. This is its main flaw," says Relanović.

The law that is supposed to regulate this field also hides other ambiguities.

One of them has to do with who is authorized to make the decision to enter into a general strike.

"The law says that the decision to enter into a general strike is made by the highest union body, but it does not say which union. Does it mean representative unions? What happens if there are more representative unions? Do they act jointly or can each one call a general strike," says Relanović.

According to him, the law is particularly unclear when the call for a strike is not made by a trade union, but comes from a broader social movement, as is currently the case in Serbia.

Who is calling for a strike?

On Wednesday, students in the blockade called on Serbian citizens to completely suspend all activities on January 24th.

As stated in a statement published on their official Instagram page, the idea is for citizens to not go to work on this day and for employers to give employees days off, cancel all scheduled meetings, and inform clients of the reasons why they are not working.

For employees who fear their employers' reaction, the students suggested that they take days off, take sick leave, or donate blood.

A rescue team inspects the area where part of a railway station shelter collapsed in Novi Sad, Serbia, November 2, 2024.

Academics called on citizens to avoid restaurants, shops, and all other places where financial transactions are carried out on this day.

"Don't go to shops, markets, shopping malls, cinemas and theatres. It's Friday, but don't go to parties and concerts. Everything must stop," the post says.

The students on the blockade demand the publication of full documentation for the reconstruction of the Novi Sad Railway Station, where the shelter collapsed, as well as the dropping of criminal charges against students and citizens who were arrested and detained during the protests, as well as the suspension of criminal proceedings initiated against them.

Among the demands are the criminal prosecution of those responsible for attacks on students and professors, their dismissal if they are found to hold public positions, and a 20 percent increase in the budget for higher education.

These demands were joined by several education employees, who refused to start the second semester on January 20.

They do not accept the agreement on wage increases that representatives of four unions reached with the Serbian Government earlier this month.

According to the Independent Teachers' Union of Serbia, which did not participate in the negotiations, as of January 20, 50 percent of schools across Serbia were on strike.

Serbian government representatives, on the other hand, said that 20 percent of schools were on strike on the first day of the second semester.

On the third day, several primary and secondary schools in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Kragujevac, Užice, Čačak and other cities were completely closed, but there is no exact data.

The Republican Committee of the Culture Union will also go on full strike on January 24, the union announced on Wednesday.

"Solidarity is the basis of the existence of unions and with this decision, we express our solidarity with all participants in all strikes," the announcement said.

The Chamber of Advocates of Serbia went on a seven-day strike on January 20th, in support of student and academic protests.

But the Supreme Court in Belgrade overturned this decision on the same day, and the Chamber subsequently decided to suspend its work for three days, REL.

General strikes in Europe

The general strike, as a form of civil and social struggle, has been organized in many European countries in the recent past.

In November 2024, a general strike was organized in Greece and Italy.

Ships stopped at ports, public transport also stopped, while doctors, teachers, construction workers and transport workers marched to the cities, demanding better wages and living standards.

In September of the same year, more than 200 unions and NGOs in Spain stopped work for a day, opposing, as they said, "the genocide in occupied Palestine."

The protest spread from Madrid to several other cities in Spain.

During 2023, there were several general strikes in France, due to President Emmanuel Macron's intention to reform the pension system.

This form of civil disobedience is not foreign to countries like Portugal (2011), Romania (2023), Germany (2023), or countries outside the European continent like Honduras, Algeria (2011) and Tunisia (2022).