Belarus union federation plans nationwide action

BELARUS: Expressing deep concern about the situation in Belarus, both for the economy and the trade union movement, the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus (FTUB) is planning a nationwide protest action on March 28, 2002, and is appealing for international trade union solidarity support. Not only is there a decline in living standards in Belarus, but social guarantees are deteriorating as well. Authorities continue to increase pressure on the trade unions and interfere in their activities in an attempt to split and weaken the trade union movement, to financially strangulate and destroy the structure of sectoral trade unions, and the FTUB in general. Although the International Labour Organisation has called on the Belarus government to stop this discrimination against the trade unions, the government ignores the demands. There have been numerous worldwide trade union protests to the Belarus government. The March 28 protest organised by the FTUB, to which the IMF's two Belarus affiliates are members, will include actions in the form of meetings, picketing, street marches in the capital of Minsk, in regional and district centres and other places in the country. In support of trade union colleagues in Belarus, the IMF would appeal to all affiliates to send letters of protests to:

• Alexandr Lukashenko
  President of the Republic of Belarus
  Ul. Karla Marksa, 38
  Minsk, Belarus
  Fax: +(375) 17 226 06 10
  
  
• Gennadii Novitskii
  Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus
  Ul. Sovetskaya, 11, Dom Pravitelstva
  Minsk, Belarus
  Fax: +(375) 17 222 66 65
  
  
• The House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus
  Fax: +(375) 17 227 37 84
  

with copies to:

• Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus
  E-mail: [email protected]
  Fax: +(375) 17 210 43 37; +(375) 17 223 90 62
  
  
• IMF in Geneva
  E-mail: [email protected]
  Fax: +(41) 22 308-5055

Update on April 5, 2002: For the protest action on March 28, government authorities only authorised picketing on one of the squares in Minsk. No meetings were allowed, and speeches were forbidden. The IMF's two affiliates - the Automobile & Agricultural Machinery Workers' Union and the Radio & Electronics Industry Workers' Union - sent some members to picket and others attended a meeting in the building of the Belarus trade union federation. The IMF's quarterly magazine "Metal World," which is translated into Russian, was distributed to those participating in the picket and drew a great deal of interest.