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12 October, 2000It was the turn this time of the Belarus Radio & Electronics Industry Workers' Union not to be intimidated by the Lukashenko government.
BELARUS: The IMF's second Belarus affiliate, the Radio & Electronics Industry Workers' Union, also held its Congress recently, near the end of September in Minsk.
Union members described how in the months leading up to this Congress President Lukashenko's "apparat" tried to force them to change their allegiance and not re-elect their leader, Genadji Feydenich. The Belarus minister of industry even became a member of the union several months earlier and attended the Congress as a delegate, as did directors of numerous companies!
In speeches preceding the election, one company director claimed that the existence of branch trade unions was nonsense and that workers needed a local union and a federation, but not a branch union. The minister of industry stated that trade unions should support the company and official power. Taking part in a political movement, he said, was none of their business!
In an open ballot, with the company directors and minister looking on, the delegates voted to re-elect Feydenich as their president, and thus rebuffed the second attempt of Lukashenko to remove an independent metal trade union leader. It was a hugely important victory for the democratisation of Belarus trade unions, for IMF affiliates and the trade union movement worldwide.
Among many union-friendly guests who attended the Congress to show their support and solidarity with the REIWU were Frank Hoffer from the ILO Moscow Office, the president of the Belarus Federation of Trade Unions, the IMF's regional representative, the presidents of two IMF affiliates in the CIS countries -- the Ukrainian Radio-Electronic Workers' Trade Unions and the Association of Trade Unions of Workers of the Radio-Electronic Industry of Moldavia, and colleagues from the Radio-Electronic Trade Unions of Russia and Lithuania.
Union members described how in the months leading up to this Congress President Lukashenko's "apparat" tried to force them to change their allegiance and not re-elect their leader, Genadji Feydenich. The Belarus minister of industry even became a member of the union several months earlier and attended the Congress as a delegate, as did directors of numerous companies!
In speeches preceding the election, one company director claimed that the existence of branch trade unions was nonsense and that workers needed a local union and a federation, but not a branch union. The minister of industry stated that trade unions should support the company and official power. Taking part in a political movement, he said, was none of their business!
In an open ballot, with the company directors and minister looking on, the delegates voted to re-elect Feydenich as their president, and thus rebuffed the second attempt of Lukashenko to remove an independent metal trade union leader. It was a hugely important victory for the democratisation of Belarus trade unions, for IMF affiliates and the trade union movement worldwide.
Among many union-friendly guests who attended the Congress to show their support and solidarity with the REIWU were Frank Hoffer from the ILO Moscow Office, the president of the Belarus Federation of Trade Unions, the IMF's regional representative, the presidents of two IMF affiliates in the CIS countries -- the Ukrainian Radio-Electronic Workers' Trade Unions and the Association of Trade Unions of Workers of the Radio-Electronic Industry of Moldavia, and colleagues from the Radio-Electronic Trade Unions of Russia and Lithuania.