Trade Union Representative: Stseklavalakno Workers Are Not Joking, There Will Be Strike

Polatsk workers have decided to move from words to action.

On November 1, a strike was declared at the OJSC Polatsk-Stseklavalakno with the requirement of equal treatment of workers at the enterprise – regardless of their participation in the trade unions.

On October 11, the trade union sent a notice about the strike to the director of the enterprise, the decision on holding it was taken the day before at the Workers' Conference. The quantitative and personal data of the conference participants is kept secret – to avoid reprisals from the administration.

– The very fact of going on strike is pressure on the employer, an attempt to force him to fulfill not only the Belarusian legislation, but also international norms. This is a way of pending problems; free trade unions have been experiencing problems not only at Polatsk-Stseklavalakno, but in the country as a whole for 14 years," – deputy chairman of the Free Trade Union of Belarus for Vitsebsk region Mikalai Sharakh explains to Belaruspartisan.org.

– What forced the union to go to the extreme measure – a strike?

– The procedure of organizing collective bargaining for the conclusion of a new collective agreement has lasted since last year. On 1 January, a new General Agreement between employers, the government and trade unions came into force, on the basis of which all the trade unions operating at the plant, including the Free Trade Union, were to be included in the negotiating commission. However, the director of the enterprise ignored the current regulation. At the time of the previous director, persecution, harassment of workers, pressure on employees with compulsion to leave the trade union started at the plant. The negative attitude towards the unions continued under new director Bunakou, which resulted in the non-inclusion of trade union representatives in the negotiating committee. The proposals made by union members were ignored. The strike is the continuation of negotiations, but by other methods," –the trade union functionary explains.

– The strike, according to the organizers, will have a phased character. What does it mean?

– Workers decide themselves in which day and in what form they will participate in the strike. The employer has no right to prevent workers from participating in the strike, and no one is allowed to force employees to participate in it. The union has notified the employer about the strike – there are no violations on our part, now the workers themselves must show whether they are ready to defend their rights, – Mikalai Sharakh stresses.

– What are the demands that the workers put forward?

– It's about stopping persecution, discrimination against workers on trade union grounds, improvement of working conditions and labor protection.

"The demand of the participants to bring the salary to a thousand rubles by the end of the year is also on the agenda," – Mikalai Sharakh says. Today, a Polatsk-Stseklavalakno employee gets an average of 700 rubles, but there is another indicator – 350% of the consumer budget in the collective agreement (the former and current ones). This indicator was not been fulfilled by the employer before, it is not being fulfilled now.

– The employer violates our constitutional right to a decent salary, and we do not see any other mechanisms to force the employer to fulfill the collective agreement, apart from the strike," – Mikalai Sharakh stresses.

By the way, Mikalai Sharakh used to work at Polatsk-Stseklavalakno himself, but a year and a half ago his contract was not extended. The non-renewal of the contract occurred two years before the employee's retirement, which was also a violation of the Belarusian legislation.