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“You don’t want to set up trade union, do you? Tax inspection and fire safety authority are sure to visit you!”

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“You don’t want to set up trade union, do you? Tax inspection and fire safety authority are sure to visit you!”
PHOTO: “SALIDARNASTS”

The leader of REP (Radio and Electronic Industry) Trade Union Henadz Fyadynich comments on the initiative of the authorities to set up trade union cells at enterprises of all forms of ownership.

- I would like to stress that I have always been against launching primary organisations by fiat. Mikhail Orda had never worked in trade unions, and he has probably forgotten that joining a trade union is a voluntary matter for each worker. And now in our country all employers are told: if you do not want to launch a trade union, tax inspection, fire safety authority are going to visit you and interfere with your normal work, – “Salidarnasts” was told by the leader of the Belarusian Trade Union of Radio and Electronic industry workers Henadz Fyadynich.

The leader of the REP trade union says that members of independent trade unions work in the private sector. At the same time he underlined that it had been a grass-root initiative:

- First a trade union group was created by us. And later we visited an employer and said: a trade union cell had been created at your enterprise, here is its head, let’s move to a higher level. That is, we presented an employer with a fait accompli: there were people who wanted to set up an organisation.

According to Fyadynich, if someone really wants to join a trade union, such a person would come to the Belarusian Trade Union Federation, including employees of the private sector.

- But there are so such things, – he stressed.

Why the FTUB needs to embrace all enterprises? Henadz Fyadynich expressed several suppositions:

- First of all, the matter concerns trade union fees. Secondly, there would be an opportunity to report to the head of the state that the Federation covers 99.8% of enterprises.

The leader of the REP trade union doubts the initiative is going to succeed. As said by him, as soon as the conditions in the country change, everyone is to scatter away, leaving trade unions which had been set up on a voluntary-compulsory basis.

- Trade unions are not just collecting fees, they are to work, to help its members. Instead of complaining about private enterprises to Lukashenka, Orda should have said that wages of people are falling, and no one knows what tomorrow brings.

Henadz Fyadynich told that officials agitate for joining the FTUB using outdated methods:

- They come to an enterprise and say: join and you will be given a weekend package tour. What is that? It’s a relic of history. But if someone would come and say: if we set up a primary organisation, your wages will grow, your working conditions will be improved, there will be stability. Anyone would join such a trade union. But such things are not going to happen. There would be pressure on an employer, he is to say to workers: an order had been received to launch a trade union, join it if you want to work for me. I feel ashamed for the FTUB chairman. Things are not all that good probably, as they have to set up trade unions in such a way, – he concluded.

On Friday at the 7th Congress of the Trade Union Federation Alyaksandr Lukashenka stated that by the middle of 2016 there should be trade union branches in all labour collectives “no matter the cost.” In this way he responded to the complaint of the FTUB head Mikhail Orda about counteraction to setting up trade union cells at private enterprises.

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