Alexander Bukhvostov Charges FTU Leadership Over “Foul Play” :: Charter'97 :: News

“They are playing a foul game,” – commented the leader of the national trade union of automobile and agricultural machinery Alexander Bukhvostov on the ruling of the Council of Federation of the Belarusian trade unions, entitled “On the unification of trade unions and industrial workers”.

Commenting on the document upon BelaPAN’s request, Alexander Bukhvostov underscored that they mean amalgamation of six industrial FTU trade unions, which sign the concomitant agreements on that with the Ministry of industry.

According to the trade unionist, the draft ruling was brought for consideration at the last session of the FTU Council’s presidium on January 30, while the final variant of the document was presented to the industrial trade unions not until February 18. “I voted in favor of the ruling at the presidium’s meeting, but on the condition that they insert proper amendments into its text. However, they discussed one thing at their assembly, while the final version contains quite another. I regard it as falsification,” – said Bukhvostov.

The changes, on which he insisted, envisaged the voluntary principle in the unification process. Bukhvostov views the trade unions’ position in the matter to be yet another sample of the pressure exertion on the independent trade unions of Belarus.

Industrial trade unions’ leaders aren’t opposed to the unification processes at all, stressed Bukhvostov, but, in their opinion, it has to flow naturally. “We agreed to consider the unification issue in the aftermath of the congress of industrial trade unions, due to take place in 2005,” – pointed out Bukhvostov.