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6 June, 1999Many guests from countries in the former Soviet Union attended the Swedish Metalworkers' Union Congress. Two unions from Belarus received awards.
Leaders of the Belarussian Automobile & Farm Machinery Workers' Union and the Belarussian Electronic Industry Workers' Trade Union received SEK 25,000 from the Swedish metalworkers. The two unions are closely cooperating and together they represent about 200,000 members. They are trying to reform their trade union structure from the Soviet Union period, but it is a difficult task. President Lukashenko is persecuting the trade union leaders and is working against the establishment of an independent trade union movement. For the first time, most of the guests at a Swedish Metalworkers' congress came from unions in the former Soviet Union. This was welcomed by the General Secretary of the IMF in his speech. A number of unions from these countries, including Russia, have applied for affiliation to the IMF. Decisions on these affiliations will be taken at the IMF Central Committee meeting in Helsinki, Finland, on June 23-24.