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14 June, 2010
Svetlana Klochok was elected to lead the ICEM affiliate, Belarusian Chemical, Miners’, and Oil Workers’ Union (Belchimprofsoyuz) early this month, despite heavy intrusion by the national labour centre Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus (FPB) and its president, Leonid Kozik. The election and Belchimprofsoyuz’s Fifth Congress took place on 3 June in Minsk.
During the final week of preparations for the Congress, strong pressure was exerted on the 197 delegates to place into leadership a colleague of Kozik’s. The effort failed and Klochok won in a free and democratic vote of delegates, signaling a very strong slap to FPB for meddling in the internal affairs of an affiliated union.
Klochok had served as Vice President of the union. She succeeds Ludmila Grushetskaya who, after many years leading the union, decided not to run for re-election.
The Congress took note of the global financial crisis, and despite it, the Belchimprofsoyuz secretariat reported the union did remarkably well in protecting working collectives, particularly in the oil and chemical industries. It achieved higher salary levels and maintained the number of jobs at levels near the number before the crisis.
Some 90% of all workers in Belchimprofsoyuz’s sectors are union members. The union’s membership is 153,000, and it added 12,000 new members over the past four years.
The Congress was attended by international trade union delegates from Russia and Italy, and the ICEM was represented by its Central Europe and Eastern Europe/Central Asia Coordinator Anatoly Surin.
The ICEM welcomes the new President of Belchimprofsoyuz, Svetlana Klochok, and looks forward to continued good and fruitful relations with the Belarusian union.