20 January, 2010Participants of the REPAM-SPM joint seminar in Belarus examined both the external and internal threats to union development, discussed lack of protection and networking methods in union activities.
BELARUS: IMF affiliates REPAM and SPM met in Minsk on December 19-20, 2009 to examine the current situation and develop new strategies. The original plan was to meet at a resort near Minsk, but despite the fact that the hotel rooms were booked in advance hotel employee called REPAM just hours before the meeting, saying there were no rooms available. It was clear the hotel management acted on government orders. However, the meeting still took place at REPAM's headquarters, and participants were accommodated in different hotels in Minsk.
The participants discussed the relations between REPAM and the national union federation BKDP. Another theme of the meeting was the problem with legal registration of shop floor organizations. While to register a union in Belarus one has to collect 31 documents, staying illegal (i.e. unregistered) may lead to criminal charges and imprisonment.
External threats to union development include aggressive new government policies (for example, increasing the required minimum number of members of a national union from 500 to 7,000), short-term work contracts, fabricated criminal cases against union leaders and activists and other provocations from police and state bodies.
Lack of clear trade union ideology, differences between BKDP affiliates such as the big, widely recognized unions such as BNP and militant organizations under great pressure such as SPM and REPAM, and aging of union members are among internal threats to union development.
The participants discussed solidarity campaigns as a means to protect union activists. There was also an idea of organizing a network of volunteers and supporters, who are not union members themselves since being a union member can sometimes lead to serious problems in Belarus. The task is to mobilize 2,000 such activists.
Another proposed strategy of protecting dismissed union activists was to help them find jobs in foreign countries, such as Poland, Lithuania and Russia. Their children should be provided an opportunity to study abroad - this will strengthen the feeling of solidarity and support in the union movement.
Both rank-and-file union members and union leaders regarded the meeting as highly successful.