One of the Most Difficult Days in ‘Uljanik’: The 1967 Strike in the Uljanik Shipyard

Godine 1965. Savezna skupština donijela je paket zakona kojima je započela velika gospodarska reforma kojoj je cilj bila veća sloboda tržišta i veća učinkovitost poslovanja te uključivanja Jugoslavije u međunarodnu podjelu rada. Reformom je uveden gospodarski sustav poznat pod nazivom tržišni socijalizam koji je kao takav, uz samoupravljanje, predstavljao posebnost jugoslavenskog samoupravnog socijalizma. Početno nesnalaženje mnogih poduzeća u novim tržišnim uvjetima dovelo je do rezanja troškova unutar poduzeća, najčešće smanjivanjem plaća i otpuštanjem radnika. Posljedica toga bilo je nezadovoljstvo radnika koje je rezultiralo nizom štrajkova koji su zabilježeni u to vrijeme, a jedan takav dogodio se i u brodogradilištu Uljanik 1967. godine. Spuštanje na razinu studije slučaja prilikom istraživanja problematike vezane uz gospodarsku reformu pruža zanimljiv uvid u događaje i omogućuje praćenje problematike na razini mikrosredine. Analiziranjem zapisnika Upravnog odbora, Radničkog savjeta, Tvorničkog odbora sindikata te glasila radnog kolektiva brodogradilišta Informator, prikazani su povod, uzroci i posljedice štrajka te položaj radnika u sustavu radničkog samoupravljanja.In 1965, the Federal Assembly issued a legal package, launching thereby a major economic reform aiming at enlarging market freedom, increasing business efficiency, and including Yugoslavia in the international work division. An economic system later known under the name of market socialism was introduced by this reform; the said system, along with self-management, represented a specific feature of Yugoslav selfmanagement socialism. The initial lack of adaptation of many companies to the new market conditions resulted in cutting down expenses within the companies – usually by the reduction of salaries and the dismissal of workers. The consequence thereof was the workers’ frustration, which resulted in a sequence of strikes recorded in that time. One of them occurred at the Uljanik Shipyard in 1967. Analysing the problems related to the economic reform on the level of a case study offers an interesting insight into the events, and facilitates the monitoring of the said problems on the micro-level. The analyses of the minutes of the Board of Directors, the Workers’ Council and the Factory Board of the Trade Union; as well as the paper entitled Informator, which was issued by the shipyard’s workers’ collective, show the motive, causes and effects of the strike, and the position of the workers within the system of workers’ self-management