We are proud to announce that aHang’s partners – the “Make a Move So They Can Make a Move” Public Association and the MátészalkaLeaks group – have both won the most prestigious professional prize, the Civil Society Award!

Mátészalkaleaks’s Snail vs Train was selected as the best action of the past year, while the Campaign for Recognizing Home Nursing – which “Make a Move So They Can Make a Move” has run in cooperation with aHang and the CSEVE Group – won the prize Most Successful Advocacy Project of 2019. Both winning groups have been supported by the community organizing program of the Civil College Foundation, our partner organization.

Where Can You Rent a Snail Costume?

We recall the excited conversations and correspondence that took place last summer about where to rent a snail costume and how to organize press for the venue without MÁV, the Hungarian Railway Company, learning what we were planning. We had no doubt that MátészalkaLeaks’s new action would be witty and effective, but we just could not stop admiring the final result. The advocacy group organized of local workers had been well-known in the region for their creativity, enthusiasm and commitment. However, with this action the group and the issue they represent – the renovation of the Debrecen-Mátészalka railway line – has become well-known throughout the country and even abroad. We are proud and happy that an action associated with one of our campaigns has been so successful!

The action and its aftermath clearly indicate what means should be used to draw attention to civil society issues.

Nothing Could Stop Us

The Home Nursing Campaign was launched on the Hang platform about a year ago. Almost all members of the team worked on this campaign for months, getting genuinely “engaged” during the work done with stakeholders. Together with the activists of “Make a Move So They Can Make a Move” and CSEVE, and all who look after a sick relative at home and their supporters, we wanted change – to improve the situation of tens of thousands of families affected by home nursing – so much that nothing could stop us. We mailed stickers, prepared for actions, wrote press releases and letters, and brainstormed for next steps 24/7. The result achieved made us immensely happy and gave us strength to continue: we will not stop until the work of all who care for a sick relative at home is recognized.

About the campaign and the success:
https://ahang.hu/kampanyok/hatalmas-eredmenyt-ertunk-el/2018/10/11/

We warmly congratulate all winners of the 2019 Civil Society Award. We are proud to have achieved success in such a strong civil society community!

Because aHang is with the workers!

On March 14, a total of 7612 civil servants participated in a strike announced by the Trade Union of Hungarian Civil Servants and Public Employees (MKKSZ), joined by dozens of activists engaging in various solidarity actions.

The flash mob involving local activists was organized by the aHang platform in Kaposvár, Miskolc, Pécs, Szeged and Budapest, among other places. The activists blocked work at the customer services of government agencies and read out the following demands of government officials working in government administration:

1. The basic holiday entitlement should be restored to its state on 31 December 2018!

2. The lunch break should be re-included in the working hours.

3. The recognition of time-in-service should be observed effectively (seniority), while the current system of allocating benefits by brackets – which contradicts stability – should be discontinued!

4. There should be a unified benefit system in government administration!

5. Wherever possible, flexible working hours and flexible working places should be introduced!

6. The special rule pertaining to employees employed by the government administration body should be modified!

7. July 1, the Day of Public Administration – the celebration of civil servants and government officials – should be made a bank holiday again!

8. The law should not restrict the deduction of trade union membership fees. The trade union should get back its powers that have been taken away!

9. We propose the creation of the National Labor Roundtable.

10. Pensioners should be able to work in the public sector while also getting their pension! Pension raises should be adjusted to the actual level of inflation! The relative impoverishment of pensioners should be stopped!

A few days ago signature collection started on the aHang platform for the rights of employees in the public sector, which are greatly hampered by the law amendment that came into effect on March 1 this year.

https://terjed.4h4n9.ahang.hu/campaigns/kozszolgalatidolgozokert

Following a call by aHang, on March 14 a couple of dozen activists, including members of the Free University, appeared in front of the Pension Directorate’s Budapest office. Just before 10 o’clock, the activists all took a queue number, so that when it would be their turn, customer service staff could listen to them. The activists spoke out against the unlawful changes affecting civil servants, reading out their demands.

The activists then posted the demands on the walls, and then sent the message ‘We Are with the Workers!’ from the stairs of the building: