Belarusian Trade Unions In Financial Blockade :: Charter'97 :: News

National Bank reacted to the official complaint of the Trade Union Federation related to its financial blockade. The protest was caused by stopped funding of the leading bodies of the Federation. Few month before the National Bank and the government introduced a new system of trade-union dues transferring. The trade union dues were moved from the first, immediate group of financial documents to the fourth group. As a result the financial activities and the structures of the Federation almost stopped working. The indebtedness to the trade unions makes billions of roubles.

In this way, as the observers say, the authorities try to hinder the sponsoring of the election campaign of Vladimir Goncharik. After the presidential election the Federation sent another appeal asking to bring the blockade to an end. Today the trade union of agricultural trucks production discussed the problem at their sitting. “The indebtedness to the trade unions makes more than 400 millions. We forwarded letters to the heads of the factories. Many of them do not realize that this dues does not belong to enterprises. The response was apathetic. Although the violations are subject to the Criminal Code. This bacchanalia with the trade union dues will last until the Public Prosecutor’s Office would have its say. But the Prosecutor’s Office do not want to get involved”, the leader of this trade union, Alexander Bukhvostov said to Radio Svaboda.

The financial blockade paralyzed the work of the trade unions on the enterprises. The leader of the trade unions at the BelVAR Minsk industrial unit, Nadezhda Maslovskaya, says: “The plant is in debt to us for three months, and we consequently are indebted to the republican committee. The debt is equal to 2 millions 158 thousands roubles. But the workers have not received the money for the August yet. Our plant needs 200 millions to pay wages. The administration has taken a loan, but they surely won’t take a loan to pay trade union dues”.