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International Trade Union To Protect Belarusian Workers

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The issue of violation of rights of trade union activists Natallia Anikeyeva and Mikhail Sashko will be discussed at the session of the IndustriALL executive committee.

On April 29, leaders of three independent trade unions of Belarus met with Deputy General Secretary of the Global Union IndustriALL Monika Kemperle in the office of REP trade union. They discussed violation of rights of trade unions and the international support of workers who get persecuted by the administration for their trade union activity.

This has been told by Chairman of REP Trade Union Henadz Fiadynich, praca-by.info reports.

The participants of the meeting discussed the situation in which independent trade unions of Belarus have to work, and went to the details of the latest outrageous cases of breaking the rights of REP trade union members – persecution of painter of the painting unit No. 91 of Minsk Tractor Plant Natallia Anikeyeva and firing trade union activist Mikhail Sashko, a specialist of 6th category who had worked at Slonim worsted spinning mill for 30 years and had only 3 more years to work before the pension.

– Monika Kemperle was very surprised, – Henadz Fiadynich has told. – She didn’t know the details of the situation we have to work with. We appealed with a plea to render some solidarity support to our members who suffered from discrimination over a trade union membership. They heard us. Now, we are preparing documents which are well-reasoned and adequate so that we could use our membership in the Global Union IndustriALL. The Minsk Tractor Plant administration should have realized that the workers who stood for protection of their legal rights would never be alone. Meanwhile, the bosses will be left alone to face their problems when the time comes.

According to the trade union leader, Monika Kemperle promised to use all possible instruments that the Global Union IndustriALL has in its disposal to make the bosses of Minsk Tractor Plant and Slonim worsted spinning mill put an end to violation of workers’ rights.

– We talked about putting pressure on the administration of these enterprises. IndustriALL has contacts with Pakistan, Tajikistan, and other countries where Minsk Tractor Plant exports its machinery. This is not a joke, the employers should realize that their lawlessness will be met with adequate measures. They will be very effective. Monika Kemperle agreed that all the issues which IndustriALL is competent in will be solved in a proper way. IndustriALL has an opportunity to come out at the conference of the International Labour Organization with a suggestion to reconsider the decision on sanctions against Belarus. I am absolutely against any sanctions. People should work, but the bosses who break the basic labour standards, adopted at the international level, and commit repressions against a working person, should pay for their actions. I wonder how our government will justify the behaviour of their colleagues – the head of Slonim worsted spinning mill and the head of the painting unit No 91 of Minsk Tractor Plant Ruslan Kryvitski – in Geneva? – Henadz Fiadynich has said.

The participants of the meeting agreed to put the issue of violation of rights of Natallia Anikeyeva and Mikhail Sashko on the agenda of the session of the IndustriALL executive committee, which will take place on May 25-26 in Frankfurt.

Deputy General Secretary of the Global Union IndustriALL Monika Kemperle visited Belarus on April 28-30 upon the invitation of Belkhimprofsoyuz, the fourth Belarusian IndustriALL member organization. She participated in the international conference “Interaction of Employers , State Authorities and Trade Unions for Prophylaxy and Prevention of Industrial Injuries, Professional Diseases, Accidents, Creation of Healthy and Safe Work Conditions”, where she made a speech on the world practice of organization of protection women’s labour.

The Global Union IndustriALL is an influential international union of trade unions of industrial workers that represents 50 million people in 140 countries of the world. Four Belarusian trade unions are included into IndustriALL – the Belarusian Independent Trade Union, The REP Trade Union, the Free Trade Union of Metalists and the Belkhimprofsoyuz.

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