“Tractor” Retailers Set to Strike :: Charter'97 :: News

Traders of the Minsk marketplace “Tractor” plan to launch a one-day warning strike. They demand to reconsider the decision of the Minsk city hall to liquidate the market by October 1, 2002.

The market, reports “BDG”, was organized by the Minsk city hall’s decision in mid-1998 in order to attract additional funds to finish construction works at the “Tractor” stadium. However, on May 17, 2000 the capital’s city hall passed a new ruling – to shut the newly appeared trade object by October 1, 2002 at the latest. And although the works haven’t been finished yet, the officials recalled out of a blue moon that the stadium is designed to hold sports events on its territory. What mass events can be held outside the soccer field, remains unclear, especially taking into account the fact that the analogous “Dynamo” market is no hindrance to anyone so far.

The entrepreneurs are angered not even by the liquidation order but more so by the established terms. Having purchased costly tents for selling stuff and having widely advertised the market, they now have to move out into nowhere. According to the traders themselves, in order to reimburse their expenses they need extra two years. Remarkably, neither the stadium’s administration, nor the headmaster of the gymnastics school, located on the market’s territory, complain over the market’s activities.