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12 December, 2000Europe's last dictator, the Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko, is trying to get the trade unions under his own control. But the violations have made them more united than ever.
BY STIG JUTTERSTRÖM
The alarm clock awakens Alexander Parfenov at 5:30 a.m. He has to be at work at 7:10 a.m. Alexander is a toolmaker at the Almagor factory in Minsk, which belongs to the Gorizont group of companies. He doesn't have to travel far to work, but he still rises early in order to have time to eat breakfast with his wife.
Alexander is 26 and has worked at Almagor for eight years. His wife is a little younger. She is a student and works part-time packing medicines. They have a six-year old son, which explains why Alexander has not had to do his two years of military service. You are exempt if you have small children.
THEY HAVE TO EAT IN SHIFTS
The young family has a four-room flat. It also houses Alexander's parents, who are both retired, and his sister and brother-in-law. The three families have to eat in shifts, and Alexander and his wife are the first, both at breakfast and dinner.
The rent is 4,000 roubles (US$4) a month in summertime and the double in wintertime. Most of Alexander's wages -- 100,000 roubles (US$100) -- goes to buying food. Meals cost between US$2-3 per day, depending on whether you are a "coloniser" or not. A coloniser is one of the growing number of people in this poor country of Belarus owning an allotment where they grow their own vegetables, primarily potatoes, carrots and cabbage. Alexander is not a coloniser.
Yet his wages are comparatively high. The average wage of the 1,300 workers at Almagor, which manufactures TV sets for export to neighbouring Russia, is $70 per month. The average monthly wage at 60 per cent of companies in the radio and electronics industry is between $30 and $45, but in the region around the capital, Minsk, with its 2 million inhabitants, the average is over $70. Doctors and teachers in Belarus earn $30 per month.
INFLATION FALLS TO 150 PER CENT
Kazimir Glovinski, who is 43 years old and has worked at Almagor for five years, has his work station a few metres away from Alexander's. He is the plant's best paid worker, earning the princely sum of $125 a month. Six months ago, his monthly wage was $65. "But the price of food has increased even more than that," he says. In October, inflation in Belarus was at 100 per cent, and it is estimated to have reached 160 per cent, as opposed to 350 per cent last year. Next year it is expected to fall to 150 per cent. Kazimir's parents have retired from a kolchos (collective farm) 100 km from Minsk, which means they can supply their son's family with meat and potatoes. Every weekend and during the whole of his holidays, Kazimir drives to his parents in his 1987 Audi 100 and helps them.
For Alexander Parfenov there is no chance of a car or holiday trips. He is gloomy about his own future and that of his country. About a year ago he visited the Czech Republic to try to find a new job, but without success. When asked what he hoped for, he sighed and said, "I don't know. Under the current regime, there is no hope."
TOUGHER LAWS THAN IN THE SOVIET STATE
"Laws here are tougher than in the Soviet state," says Genady Fedynich, president of the Belarus Radio & Electronics Industry Workers' Union (REI), where practically all workers at Algamor are members. The proportion of union members in Belarus is at the Nordic level - around 90-95 per cent. Fedynich has just been re-elected president, although both the Belarussian president and major employers tried to get rid of him. The minister for industry, Anatolij Harlap, joined the union only a few months before its Congress, in order to exert the greatest possible influence.
In the late 1980s, Genady, at the time the chief engineer, presided the local union branch at Planar Amalgamation, a large factory in Minsk. When the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, he wanted to restructure completely the Moscow-run union, and this was perhaps the reason why he was elected president of the national union, which at that time was big. It had 265,000 members in companies that had become accustomed to large orders from the Soviet defence industry. Today the number of members has shrunk to 74,000, and when the country's president and employers failed to oust him at the union's National Congress in October 2000, they started organising "yellow" trade unions run by company managers.
"This is a difficult time for union leaders. All trade unionists live dangerously, and it is the 'President & Co' who are behind the persecution," says Fedynich, sitting behind the large conference table in the president's union office. His potted plants in the barred windows look well cared-for; on the wall there is a diploma from the Swedish Metalworkers' Union stating that the REI was given US$3,000 to help the struggle for independent Belarus trade unions. "We used the money to buy computers and other technical equipment," declared Fedynich.
"THE PRESSURE HAS UNITED US"
The largest national trade union centre, the Belarussian Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU), is in no doubt that the pressure is on for their unions. The Belarus president, Alexander Lukashenko, has been cracking down on trade unions. Did this mean that the president actually felt threatened, despite everything? Yes, replies Vladimir Goncharik, the BFTU president. His office is on the eleventh floor of the tall building called "Trade Union House". This building was, like most of the rest of Minsk, built after the Second World War, when 90 per cent of the city lay in ruins. The BFTU consists of 32 industrial federations and two company unions, which together represent 3.4 million members. The number of members has declined. Pressure from management is having an effect. "The trade union movement stands on its own. It is the only organisation not in the hands of the president. This is why is he trying to get control over us too. But we are more united than ever. The pressure has brought us together."
The BFTU's bank account was closed down two months ago after intervention by an auditing authority controlled by the Belarus president. "The accounts are in good order and the auditors promise us each day that they will reopen the account, but have not yet done so," Goncharik explains. This means that he and the other employees have not been paid. He suffers along with the rest of the workers at the office but does not complain for himself. He is a "coloniser", a member of a popular movement in a country which has no tradition of popular movements. His wife is retired and each day takes the bus to the 0.15 hectare allotment a few kilometres from Minsk, where she cultivates fresh vegetables. "I never need to buy potatoes," the BFTU president assures us. Belarussians used to call potatoes 'our alternative bread'.
LUKASHENKO -- A POLITICAL "PHENOMENON"
Four floors below, on the seventh floor of 'Trade Union House', sits Aliaksandr Bukhvostau, the president of the Belarus Automobile and Agricultural Machinery Workers' Union (BAAMWU), the largest industrial trade union in the country, with 189,000 members. METAL WORLD visited him two days after the second round of the Belarussian parliamentary elections in October 2000. He is dressed, as is his habit, entirely in black, today wearing a polo-neck sweater and a jacket. On the wall behind him are two large flags, one belonging to his union and the other to the Belarus Labour Party.
"The elections were totally rigged," he declares. Indeed, the elections were a farce. Practically all candidates who opposed the current regime were prevented even from standing. For this reason, Bukhvostau and other members of the opposition parties boycotted the election, but the boycott was not a complete success.
Aliaksandr Bukhvostau describes Aleksander Lukashenko, who has presided over the country since July 1994, as a political "phenomenon". "He is a self-made man, the simple peasant son of an unmarried milkmaid from a farm in eastern Belarus, who rose to become the director of a collective farm." While an unknown politician, he managed to concentrate the discontent which arose in Belarus a few years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Life in the new independent nation, with its 10 million inhabitants, did not become as rosy as the Belarussians had hoped. As president, Lukashenko altered the constitution twice, once in 1995 and again 1996. The changes made him a dictator in all but name. "We started off with an autocratic regime, but this has turned into dictatorship," says Aliaksandr Bukhvostau, who has given it the name of 'Lukashism'.
A NEW TRADE UNION MOVEMENT
"Our dictatorship is not the same as, for example, in Chile under Augusto Pinochet," says Bukhvostau." Not so many people disappear here as in Chile, perhaps two or three every year. Instead, they are flung into prison. Half a per cent of the population -- 56,000 persons -- are in jail." Belarus is a police state with a militia numbering 125,000 and nearly the same number are involved with the KGB, the secret police still feared by many, which has not even bothered changing its name.
"Lukashenko is worse than Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia, who at least at first did some good things," declares Bukhvostau. "Lukashenko hasn't done any good at all." He spoke of the years 1990 to 1995 as a positive period in Belarus, when the country developed democratically. Since 1995 developments have gone the other way. The early 1990s were the years when the trade unions broke free from the Communist Party. There were largely the same people running the trade unions; however, according to Bukhvostau, "we created a new trade union movement but with the same people as in the old unions." When asked how this was possible, he paused, but then began to laugh. "We changed our minds," he declares.
"PEOPLE MUST BECOME ACTIVE"
Two other factors remain: the conservatism of the members and the attempts by company managements to control the unions. These conservatives are people who believe that things were better earlier, and nurse nostalgic dreams of turning the clock back to Soviet Union days. Belarus is very "Russified", which helps to explain why so many people in this patient nation have been subdued. They neither protest nor take to the streets when their wages are not paid. Aliaksandr Bukhvostau tells the story of the managing director who lost his temper because the workers were so endlessly patient, despite not being paid for several weeks. "It you don't protest tomorrow you'll be hanged," he threatened. Only one worker held up his hand to ask: "Should we bring our own ropes?"
"People are living in the past - they must become more active," exclaims Bukhvostau. Attempts by company management to take over union power have been reflected in a number of different ways. At the BAAMWU Congress in September, the industry minister, Anatolij Harlap, the new member of the REI, remained throughout. According to Bukhvostau, he was not allowed to leave the premises, as President Lukashenko had ordered him to stay. In his speech, Harlap instructed the union not to get involved in politics. Another member of the trade union, also present, was the deputy director of the Minsk Tractor Plant, Alexander Karzev, who was nominated to stand as president against Bukhvostau. Karzev collected only 40 votes, and Bukhvostau could, for the time being, heave a sigh of relief.
THE IMF HAS MADE US FEEL STRONGER
"It is important to maintain the fighting spirit that was expressed at the Congress," Bukhvostau says, two months afterwards. He emphasises that "the support of trade unions in other countries meant a great deal, both before and during the Congress itself." He was particularly pleased to have received the solidarity messages from the Russian unions. In December 1999, Belarus and Russia signed a treaty on a two-state union envisioning greater political and economic integration.
The president of the Russian Automobile Workers' Union, Julij Novikov, was present at the Congress, and the president of the Metallurgical Workers' Union, Mikhail Tarasenko, sent a letter in which he condemned the government's attempts to split the trade union movement. "The protest letters from all over the world have reduced the president's attacks against us. Our membership in the IMF has made us feel stronger. This was apparent during our Congress," explains Bukhvostau. In December, he will participate for the first time as an observer at the IMF's Executive Committee meeting, nominated by the affiliates in Central and Eastern Europe.
A PROTEST MARCH TO RED SQUARE
Bukhvostau has been described as a courageous man. Does he agree? "Courage is not an absolute attribute; it depends on circumstances. But I do try to follow certain principles. These include not being subverted for personal gain."
He has fought to support victims of the nuclear power station accident at Chernobyl in the Ukraine in April 1986. In 1990, he organised a protest march to Red Square in Moscow. The reactor catastrophe had occurred four years previously, but the authorities were still trying to hide the truth from the people about the consequences. Bukhvostau was a shop steward in the union branch at Gomselmash, a plant in Gomel, not far from the Ukrainian border. 70 per cent of the toxic fallout descended over Belarus, which was given the least help. The outcome of the protest march was that the secret documents started being published, and the victims of the accident were given better support.
"But Lukashenko has even reduced that support. He is more interested in building indoor ice hockey facilities."
Each regional centre town in Belarus is to have at least one splendid new indoor ice hockey rink. And Lukashenko is opening them, wearing hockey equipment.
Complaint to the ILO on violation of workers' rights in Belarus
In June 2000, the Belarussian Automobile and Agricultural Machinery Workers' Union (BAAMWU), the Belarussian Radio-Electronic Industry Workers' Union (BREIWU), the Belarussian Agricultural Sector Workers' Union and the Belarussian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions registered an official complaint with the International Labour Organisation against the Government of Belarus. The trade unions' complaint is in regard to violation of fundamental workers' rights in their country.
On June 27, the Presidium of the Belarussian Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU) decided unanimously to support and join this complaint.
On October 18-20, the Executive Director of the ILO, Kari Tapiola, headed an ILO mission to Belarus concerning the complaint of the Belarussian trade unions about blatant violations of ILO Conventions Nos. 87 and 98. The mission discussed the current situation with representatives of the government, the presidential administration, employers and trade unions. The ILO Committee on Freedom of Association will discuss the case at its session in March 2001 based on the information provided in the complaint and the information provided to the delegation.
This is a summary of the complaint.
By ratifying ILO Conventions Nos. 87 and 98, the government of Belarus has the obligation to ensure and to promote the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. However, the government has violated these fundamental human and workers' rights in many ways:
Compulsory registration
The state has made trade union registration obligatory and demands immediate liquidation of non-registered organisations. The registration requirements are so cumbersome and complicated that, in practice, it has been virtually impossible for many trade union organisations to get registered.
Minimum membership requirement
A minimum number of not less than 500 founding members, representing the major number of regions of the Republic of Belarus and Minsk, is required for setting up a trade union organisation. The list with the names has to be provided to the Ministry of Justice. Trade unions in places of work require not less than 10 per cent of workers of the overall number at the relevant place, but not less than ten people. This makes it virtually impossible to create new trade union organisations.
State and employers' interference in trade union activities
The head of the administration of the president gave the order to ministers to take control over the election process of the branch trade unions and ensure that constructive forces would be elected. Subsequently, company directors and ministry officials are trying to manipulate trade union congresses to ensure the election of presidents and delegates loyal to the government and the president.
Right to strike
The legal provisions for strike actions are very difficult and require at least two months. Furthermore, the law gives the president the right to postpone any strike for another three months in case of the creation of a real threat to the national security, public order, health of the population, or rights and freedoms of other persons.
Discrimination of trade union members
Employees have been dismissed for participating in trade union activities or threatened with dismissal if they do not leave their trade union. The KGB has been observing trade union activities and paid regular visits to trade unionists for information purposes.
Alexander is 26 and has worked at Almagor for eight years. His wife is a little younger. She is a student and works part-time packing medicines. They have a six-year old son, which explains why Alexander has not had to do his two years of military service. You are exempt if you have small children.
THEY HAVE TO EAT IN SHIFTS
The young family has a four-room flat. It also houses Alexander's parents, who are both retired, and his sister and brother-in-law. The three families have to eat in shifts, and Alexander and his wife are the first, both at breakfast and dinner.
The rent is 4,000 roubles (US$4) a month in summertime and the double in wintertime. Most of Alexander's wages -- 100,000 roubles (US$100) -- goes to buying food. Meals cost between US$2-3 per day, depending on whether you are a "coloniser" or not. A coloniser is one of the growing number of people in this poor country of Belarus owning an allotment where they grow their own vegetables, primarily potatoes, carrots and cabbage. Alexander is not a coloniser.
Yet his wages are comparatively high. The average wage of the 1,300 workers at Almagor, which manufactures TV sets for export to neighbouring Russia, is $70 per month. The average monthly wage at 60 per cent of companies in the radio and electronics industry is between $30 and $45, but in the region around the capital, Minsk, with its 2 million inhabitants, the average is over $70. Doctors and teachers in Belarus earn $30 per month.
INFLATION FALLS TO 150 PER CENT
Kazimir Glovinski, who is 43 years old and has worked at Almagor for five years, has his work station a few metres away from Alexander's. He is the plant's best paid worker, earning the princely sum of $125 a month. Six months ago, his monthly wage was $65. "But the price of food has increased even more than that," he says. In October, inflation in Belarus was at 100 per cent, and it is estimated to have reached 160 per cent, as opposed to 350 per cent last year. Next year it is expected to fall to 150 per cent. Kazimir's parents have retired from a kolchos (collective farm) 100 km from Minsk, which means they can supply their son's family with meat and potatoes. Every weekend and during the whole of his holidays, Kazimir drives to his parents in his 1987 Audi 100 and helps them.
For Alexander Parfenov there is no chance of a car or holiday trips. He is gloomy about his own future and that of his country. About a year ago he visited the Czech Republic to try to find a new job, but without success. When asked what he hoped for, he sighed and said, "I don't know. Under the current regime, there is no hope."
TOUGHER LAWS THAN IN THE SOVIET STATE
"Laws here are tougher than in the Soviet state," says Genady Fedynich, president of the Belarus Radio & Electronics Industry Workers' Union (REI), where practically all workers at Algamor are members. The proportion of union members in Belarus is at the Nordic level - around 90-95 per cent. Fedynich has just been re-elected president, although both the Belarussian president and major employers tried to get rid of him. The minister for industry, Anatolij Harlap, joined the union only a few months before its Congress, in order to exert the greatest possible influence.
In the late 1980s, Genady, at the time the chief engineer, presided the local union branch at Planar Amalgamation, a large factory in Minsk. When the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, he wanted to restructure completely the Moscow-run union, and this was perhaps the reason why he was elected president of the national union, which at that time was big. It had 265,000 members in companies that had become accustomed to large orders from the Soviet defence industry. Today the number of members has shrunk to 74,000, and when the country's president and employers failed to oust him at the union's National Congress in October 2000, they started organising "yellow" trade unions run by company managers.
"This is a difficult time for union leaders. All trade unionists live dangerously, and it is the 'President & Co' who are behind the persecution," says Fedynich, sitting behind the large conference table in the president's union office. His potted plants in the barred windows look well cared-for; on the wall there is a diploma from the Swedish Metalworkers' Union stating that the REI was given US$3,000 to help the struggle for independent Belarus trade unions. "We used the money to buy computers and other technical equipment," declared Fedynich.
"THE PRESSURE HAS UNITED US"
The largest national trade union centre, the Belarussian Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU), is in no doubt that the pressure is on for their unions. The Belarus president, Alexander Lukashenko, has been cracking down on trade unions. Did this mean that the president actually felt threatened, despite everything? Yes, replies Vladimir Goncharik, the BFTU president. His office is on the eleventh floor of the tall building called "Trade Union House". This building was, like most of the rest of Minsk, built after the Second World War, when 90 per cent of the city lay in ruins. The BFTU consists of 32 industrial federations and two company unions, which together represent 3.4 million members. The number of members has declined. Pressure from management is having an effect. "The trade union movement stands on its own. It is the only organisation not in the hands of the president. This is why is he trying to get control over us too. But we are more united than ever. The pressure has brought us together."
The BFTU's bank account was closed down two months ago after intervention by an auditing authority controlled by the Belarus president. "The accounts are in good order and the auditors promise us each day that they will reopen the account, but have not yet done so," Goncharik explains. This means that he and the other employees have not been paid. He suffers along with the rest of the workers at the office but does not complain for himself. He is a "coloniser", a member of a popular movement in a country which has no tradition of popular movements. His wife is retired and each day takes the bus to the 0.15 hectare allotment a few kilometres from Minsk, where she cultivates fresh vegetables. "I never need to buy potatoes," the BFTU president assures us. Belarussians used to call potatoes 'our alternative bread'.
LUKASHENKO -- A POLITICAL "PHENOMENON"
Four floors below, on the seventh floor of 'Trade Union House', sits Aliaksandr Bukhvostau, the president of the Belarus Automobile and Agricultural Machinery Workers' Union (BAAMWU), the largest industrial trade union in the country, with 189,000 members. METAL WORLD visited him two days after the second round of the Belarussian parliamentary elections in October 2000. He is dressed, as is his habit, entirely in black, today wearing a polo-neck sweater and a jacket. On the wall behind him are two large flags, one belonging to his union and the other to the Belarus Labour Party.
"The elections were totally rigged," he declares. Indeed, the elections were a farce. Practically all candidates who opposed the current regime were prevented even from standing. For this reason, Bukhvostau and other members of the opposition parties boycotted the election, but the boycott was not a complete success.
Aliaksandr Bukhvostau describes Aleksander Lukashenko, who has presided over the country since July 1994, as a political "phenomenon". "He is a self-made man, the simple peasant son of an unmarried milkmaid from a farm in eastern Belarus, who rose to become the director of a collective farm." While an unknown politician, he managed to concentrate the discontent which arose in Belarus a few years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Life in the new independent nation, with its 10 million inhabitants, did not become as rosy as the Belarussians had hoped. As president, Lukashenko altered the constitution twice, once in 1995 and again 1996. The changes made him a dictator in all but name. "We started off with an autocratic regime, but this has turned into dictatorship," says Aliaksandr Bukhvostau, who has given it the name of 'Lukashism'.
A NEW TRADE UNION MOVEMENT
"Our dictatorship is not the same as, for example, in Chile under Augusto Pinochet," says Bukhvostau." Not so many people disappear here as in Chile, perhaps two or three every year. Instead, they are flung into prison. Half a per cent of the population -- 56,000 persons -- are in jail." Belarus is a police state with a militia numbering 125,000 and nearly the same number are involved with the KGB, the secret police still feared by many, which has not even bothered changing its name.
"Lukashenko is worse than Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia, who at least at first did some good things," declares Bukhvostau. "Lukashenko hasn't done any good at all." He spoke of the years 1990 to 1995 as a positive period in Belarus, when the country developed democratically. Since 1995 developments have gone the other way. The early 1990s were the years when the trade unions broke free from the Communist Party. There were largely the same people running the trade unions; however, according to Bukhvostau, "we created a new trade union movement but with the same people as in the old unions." When asked how this was possible, he paused, but then began to laugh. "We changed our minds," he declares.
"PEOPLE MUST BECOME ACTIVE"
Two other factors remain: the conservatism of the members and the attempts by company managements to control the unions. These conservatives are people who believe that things were better earlier, and nurse nostalgic dreams of turning the clock back to Soviet Union days. Belarus is very "Russified", which helps to explain why so many people in this patient nation have been subdued. They neither protest nor take to the streets when their wages are not paid. Aliaksandr Bukhvostau tells the story of the managing director who lost his temper because the workers were so endlessly patient, despite not being paid for several weeks. "It you don't protest tomorrow you'll be hanged," he threatened. Only one worker held up his hand to ask: "Should we bring our own ropes?"
"People are living in the past - they must become more active," exclaims Bukhvostau. Attempts by company management to take over union power have been reflected in a number of different ways. At the BAAMWU Congress in September, the industry minister, Anatolij Harlap, the new member of the REI, remained throughout. According to Bukhvostau, he was not allowed to leave the premises, as President Lukashenko had ordered him to stay. In his speech, Harlap instructed the union not to get involved in politics. Another member of the trade union, also present, was the deputy director of the Minsk Tractor Plant, Alexander Karzev, who was nominated to stand as president against Bukhvostau. Karzev collected only 40 votes, and Bukhvostau could, for the time being, heave a sigh of relief.
THE IMF HAS MADE US FEEL STRONGER
"It is important to maintain the fighting spirit that was expressed at the Congress," Bukhvostau says, two months afterwards. He emphasises that "the support of trade unions in other countries meant a great deal, both before and during the Congress itself." He was particularly pleased to have received the solidarity messages from the Russian unions. In December 1999, Belarus and Russia signed a treaty on a two-state union envisioning greater political and economic integration.
The president of the Russian Automobile Workers' Union, Julij Novikov, was present at the Congress, and the president of the Metallurgical Workers' Union, Mikhail Tarasenko, sent a letter in which he condemned the government's attempts to split the trade union movement. "The protest letters from all over the world have reduced the president's attacks against us. Our membership in the IMF has made us feel stronger. This was apparent during our Congress," explains Bukhvostau. In December, he will participate for the first time as an observer at the IMF's Executive Committee meeting, nominated by the affiliates in Central and Eastern Europe.
A PROTEST MARCH TO RED SQUARE
Bukhvostau has been described as a courageous man. Does he agree? "Courage is not an absolute attribute; it depends on circumstances. But I do try to follow certain principles. These include not being subverted for personal gain."
He has fought to support victims of the nuclear power station accident at Chernobyl in the Ukraine in April 1986. In 1990, he organised a protest march to Red Square in Moscow. The reactor catastrophe had occurred four years previously, but the authorities were still trying to hide the truth from the people about the consequences. Bukhvostau was a shop steward in the union branch at Gomselmash, a plant in Gomel, not far from the Ukrainian border. 70 per cent of the toxic fallout descended over Belarus, which was given the least help. The outcome of the protest march was that the secret documents started being published, and the victims of the accident were given better support.
"But Lukashenko has even reduced that support. He is more interested in building indoor ice hockey facilities."
Each regional centre town in Belarus is to have at least one splendid new indoor ice hockey rink. And Lukashenko is opening them, wearing hockey equipment.
Complaint to the ILO on violation of workers' rights in Belarus
In June 2000, the Belarussian Automobile and Agricultural Machinery Workers' Union (BAAMWU), the Belarussian Radio-Electronic Industry Workers' Union (BREIWU), the Belarussian Agricultural Sector Workers' Union and the Belarussian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions registered an official complaint with the International Labour Organisation against the Government of Belarus. The trade unions' complaint is in regard to violation of fundamental workers' rights in their country.
On June 27, the Presidium of the Belarussian Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU) decided unanimously to support and join this complaint.
On October 18-20, the Executive Director of the ILO, Kari Tapiola, headed an ILO mission to Belarus concerning the complaint of the Belarussian trade unions about blatant violations of ILO Conventions Nos. 87 and 98. The mission discussed the current situation with representatives of the government, the presidential administration, employers and trade unions. The ILO Committee on Freedom of Association will discuss the case at its session in March 2001 based on the information provided in the complaint and the information provided to the delegation.
This is a summary of the complaint.
By ratifying ILO Conventions Nos. 87 and 98, the government of Belarus has the obligation to ensure and to promote the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. However, the government has violated these fundamental human and workers' rights in many ways:
Compulsory registration
The state has made trade union registration obligatory and demands immediate liquidation of non-registered organisations. The registration requirements are so cumbersome and complicated that, in practice, it has been virtually impossible for many trade union organisations to get registered.
Minimum membership requirement
A minimum number of not less than 500 founding members, representing the major number of regions of the Republic of Belarus and Minsk, is required for setting up a trade union organisation. The list with the names has to be provided to the Ministry of Justice. Trade unions in places of work require not less than 10 per cent of workers of the overall number at the relevant place, but not less than ten people. This makes it virtually impossible to create new trade union organisations.
State and employers' interference in trade union activities
The head of the administration of the president gave the order to ministers to take control over the election process of the branch trade unions and ensure that constructive forces would be elected. Subsequently, company directors and ministry officials are trying to manipulate trade union congresses to ensure the election of presidents and delegates loyal to the government and the president.
Right to strike
The legal provisions for strike actions are very difficult and require at least two months. Furthermore, the law gives the president the right to postpone any strike for another three months in case of the creation of a real threat to the national security, public order, health of the population, or rights and freedoms of other persons.
Discrimination of trade union members
Employees have been dismissed for participating in trade union activities or threatened with dismissal if they do not leave their trade union. The KGB has been observing trade union activities and paid regular visits to trade unionists for information purposes.