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5 October, 2011
International pressure – both inside and out of Georgia – caused a change of course last week by police and political authorities in the aftermath of belligerent 15 September strike-breaking at Euroasian Steels in Kutaisi. Not only were over 30 sacked workers offered their jobs back, but police questioned the Indian managing director and two aides at Euroasian, also known as Hercules Steel, on 29 September.
The next day the top boss was sacked.
Meanwhile, three strike leaders – Emilo Gumberidze, Irakli Iobidze, and Malkhaz Gogiava – who were jailed by police on bogus charges were released after serving ten-day sentences in the Kutaisi jail. (See ICEM report here.)
They immediately called Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers’ Union President Tamazi Dolaberidze and pledged their continued support to the union. On 30 September, the new acting managing director of Hercules personally called each of the three to offer them their jobs back. The reversal gave Hercules metalworkers renewed momentum following the strike’s crushing and that registered both with Georgian workers and about 130 Indian workers employed at the rolling mill.
Georgia's Police Break Strike in Kutaisi, 15 September
Several points of global and internal civil pressure caused deep embarrassment to Georgia. There also was high-level diplomatic pressure involved, especially after an international delegation that included the ICEM and top leaders from Poland’s Solidarnoşç exposed the fact that the Indian workers at Hercules may be treated worse than anyone else.
They live eight to a room in a dormitory adjacent to the mill, their passports were being head by the senior boss, and their salaries are sent back to India. It is believed that the top boss, Raji Kumar Sureika, was sacked because he was holding the passports.
The strike last month by 200 Hercules metalworkers was sparked after the Metallurgical, Mining, Chemical Union gained written support from a majority of the Georgian workers and then requested labour-management dialogue. After several weeks, the request was ignored and the strike started, including hunger strikes by four workers in front of the mill.
Two days into the strike, police violently broke it up and literally forced workers back to their jobs. Workers are angry that the two-year-old start-up mill has no salary schedule, no health and safety plan, and pays no overtime. Following last week’s good news, the ICEM-affiliated Metallurgical, Mining, Chemical Union again called on Hercules to enter peaceful, construction negotiations.
The ICEM commends the leadership of the Georgia Trade Union Confederation (GTUC), and Tamazi Dolaberidze, for mobilising to organise, and the Global Union Federation pledges to remain active on the global front over the ever-reocurring abuse of trade union rights in Georgia.