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1 December, 2002The IMF has launched a Russian-language website, targeting trade unionists in the republics of the former Soviet Union and the Baltic states.
GENEVA / MOSCOW: The IMF has launched a Russian-language website, targeting trade unionists in the republics of the former Soviet Union and the Baltic states. From the outset, the site contains a regularly updated news section, information about the IMF, affiliates' addresses, event information, link collection, contact possibilities, and a publications page from which important IMF documents - like the IMF Action Programme and Rules - can be downloaded.
"IMF affiliates in these regions have long anticipated this website. They badly lack unbiased information about international trade union issues, and this IMF initiative will help them in this respect," says Svetla Shekerdjieva at the IMF Project Office in Moscow.
As not many workers in the region have access to the Internet, the website is primarily aimed at trade union officials at national and regional level and at large enterprises. But Internet access is gaining ground, and Svetla Shekerdjieva exemplifies this with a recent IMF educational seminar in Russia, where every second delegate claimed to have access to the Internet.
IMF affiliates in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia organise more than 4 million members.
Note: The address to the new web section is www.imfmetal.org/cis.
The IMF also produces a regional website for Latin America and the Caribbean, address www.imfmetal.org/fitim.