The Role of the Employers’ Movement

An interesting issue to dwell on in what concerns the employers’ movement is its position as opposed to that of the political class in Romania over the last 13 years following 1989. This is where one can find the key to its weakness in relation to the employees’ unions: the political class, or what this meant after 1989, did not vote for strong, well-established employers’ organizations that could represent a force in Romania’s economic and societal environment. In its desire to hold all the strings, the political class pervaded the entire economic spectre accumulating great wealth and practically maneuvering all the economic decisions in Romania directly.

It is normal for the Members of Parliament to represent and protect in the Legislative the interests of the professional categories they come from; thus not only themselves, but also the others will have something to win. It is good for the Parliament to include so many people who can take the pulse of the economy live because they could mend the errors of the Executive. Only that the Romanian MPs do not usually share a generous vision, and often think only of themselves. Situated very close to the source, they hunt for opportunities preeminently on the back door. Their status and priority information help them act fast and efficiently, making them able to perfect contracts on the cell phone right in the Parliament aula.

That is the reason for the extraordinary mirage of political power after ’89 for people who never had a political vocation or some inclination towards serving the national interest, but who managed to acquire leadership of Romania due to the concourse of events. They did not wish to have a dialogue with those coming from the true market economy spectre and able to take the correct economic decisions. For fear real businessmen could become influential and representative and their position the Romanian economy would shatter, the political power permanently attempted to discredit this section of the people by pushing the non-values forth. Thus, one can see that, up to this day, Romania does not have real employers to represent it in a foreign business environment.

Given the circumstances, employership could not form and develop well; the real employers could not mould themselves into personalities truly promoting a market economy. What would one need an employers’ institution for, when the ministers and prime-ministers themselves are powerful businessmen, and well-known politicians in the Parliament use their institution telephones and cars on the private purpose of acquiring fabulous wealth and dispose of Romania’s riches at their will? Here lies the key to the period of turmoil Romania is experiencing, and this also explains a transition prolonged until, as somebody said, “they’ll steal everything”. It is, of course, difficult to steal a whole country, but even more difficult to imagine that having done so, one will also be able to enjoy the results.

I have the strong belief that all those who acquired an impressive wealth on dishonest paths will have to pay the price or give it back, and that it will finally return to those who deserve it.

We therefore must keep faith that sooner or later any political class will understand the mechanisms of market economy, and that salvation will ultimately come from the business environment and from the businessmen who are capable of finding viable economic solutions; on a long term, they are the ones who can uphold durable economic growth in Romania and protect the national interest, which is ultimately the interest of the people living and working in this country. Only fair taxpayers with a consistent amount of knowledge and expertise can help develop and represent Romania.

We also believe that the politicians who will rely on successful businessmen and acknowledge the employers’ structures will win the elections in the near future. These true entrepreneurs, who have reached a degree of wealth that makes them immune to corruption, are aware of the highs and lows of economic life and can lead the way to the societal and economic development of Romanian and to its successful integration in the European Union. This is certainly not easy as long as the political class attempts to take the place of the businessmen and divide them at some point. Eventually, the rules and laws of market economy will impose themselves. Then, the political mixture in the economy will have to take place cautiously and only where decisions of national interest are involved.

At this point, UNPR opposes a left-wing governing political class, which is, paradoxically, the richest in displaying local upstarts who claim they know how to do business, but who acquired an impressive wealth they cannot justify by using money that came from the state treasury and contracts they assigned to themselves by means of laws made for themselves.

This is a situation we as an organization and the soul of Romanian employership cannot tolerate. It would mean accepting a mob society and building a country led by cartels and controlled by organized crime and terrorism. This is not our wish; on the contrary, our ideal is a Romania just for all, where anybody’s chances can be expressed freely and without impositions, where differences only emerge from human structure and from circumstances independent of one’s will.

Subsequently, UNPR opts for the elimination of politics from the economy and from the employers’ structures, currently invaded by ministers, former ministers, MPs, former MPs, at any rate, people strongly connected to politics and to the executive mechanisms, and able to influence in a negative or preferential manner the economic decisions in Romania.

We believe that an employers’ organization can only exist with people who are not directly involved in politics and do not answer political commands. Given the terms, I hold that UNPR is a source of light on a dark map of Romania that covers numerous employers’ organizations and unrepresentative groups of interests unrelated to the development of the Romanian nation and economy.

I believe that, in the future, all the things we have so often and strongly asserted will become a reality: that Romania will have acceded the European Union with a balanced political class consisting of people dedicated to politics and uninvolved in the economy, and that the real employers will promote the development of a functional market economy in Romania.

Our hope is that Romania, which has so often been a miracle to many, will be able to recover its true path and values, so that it can be best represented in the future Parliament of Europe and that we, the businessmen, will implicitly acquire a well-established place and purpose.

Marian Petre Milut - President of UNPR