10 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 the 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. An ongoing police investigation is underway over his conduct inside the steel mill.
In the midst of this positive reversal, the ICEM, however, took deep exception to remarks made last week by the Georgian business ombudsman, George Pertaia. On 6 October, Pertaia said the September strike by workers was manipulated and instigated by ICEM affiliate Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers’ Trade Union “to justify its existence.”
Polish Solidarnoşç Union Members and ICEM Meet with Hercules Steel Workers, 28 September
Pertaia said that workers at Hercules have individual contracts and had no right to strike. “If the contract is signed, and you have already agreed with certain conditions, then you have no right to refuse those conditions,” he said.
The ICEM reminds Pertaia that global labour standards do exist, including the right to join a union and to bargain collectively. Considering that Euroasian Steels, or Hercules, has no wage schedule in place, no health and safety plan, it pays no overtime, and workers are forced to work mandatory and long work days, industrial action was justified.
The ICEM also invites Mr. Pertaia to examine the working conditions of 130 Indian workers employed at Hercules. They live eight to a room in a dormitory adjacent to the mill, their passports were being head by the managing director, Raji Kumar Sureika, their salaries are sent back to India, and they are given a miniscule stipend to support themselves off the job.
In fact, it is believed that the managing director was sacked and is under police investigation because of treatment of the Indian workers.
On 18 September, three strike leaders – Emilo Gumberidze, Irakli Iobidze, and Malkhaz Gogiava – were rounded up and jailed by police on bogus charges. They were given ten day jail sentences. (A prior ICEM article is here.)
Upon release from the Kutaisi jail on 28 September, the three 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 with Indian workers.
Several points of global and internal civil pressure caused deep embarrassment to the Georgian government. There was high-level diplomatic pressure involved, especially after an international delegation that included the ICEM and top leaders from Poland’s Solidarnoşç union exposed the fact that the Indian workers at Hercules might just be treated worse than Georgian workers.
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.