28 June, 2011The management of Altynken LLC, a company exploiting the third largest gold mine in Kyrgyzstan, responded to the creation of a union by dismissing its newly elected president and creating an alternative structure, controlled by the management. The IMF has sent letters of protest to the executive director of Altynken and Kyrgyz authorities.
KYRGYZSTAN: On June 14 a union was founded at Altynken LLC. Elections of union committee members were held the same day. Turatkan Arykbaev was elected president. On June 15 the union was registered and joined the Mining and Metallurgy Trade Union of Kyrgyzstan (MMTUK), an IMF affiliate.
When the management learned about the creation of the union, it started to persecute union activists. Turatkan Arykbaev received a notice of dismissal. Union committee members have been under psychological pressure. The company leadership stubbornly refuses to recognize the union.
On Monday, June 27 Arykbaev was dismissed. The management offered him to write a letter of resignation. When he refused, he was fired as he "was still on probation". The MMTUK considers the dismissal illegal. The union has prepared a legal action against the dismissal and has asked the Kyrgyz Labour Inspection to do the same.
Also on June 27 the company organized a meeting at the mine, and created an alternative union. The MMTUK will challenge this decision too: under Kyrgyz laws, members of the company management cannot create unions.
The MMTUK has called for international solidarity, and has received numerous letters of support.
IMF general secretary Jyrki Raina sent letters of protest to the executive director of Altynken LLC Muhtar Shabanbaev, to the Prosecutor General, to the Kyrgyz minister of natural resources and to the director of the Kyrgyz Labour Inspection. These bodies have already started to investigate the situation at the plant.
"We demand that the persecution and discrimination of union activists stops immediately and that the workers' right to freedom of association is respected," Jyrki Raina wrote in a letter to the executive director of Altynken LLC.
The MMTUK will continue to fight against the persecution of union activists at Altynken LLC and for the recognition of the union local. The union is preparing a statement addressed to foreign investors demanding the dismissal of the Altynken executive director for violating the constitutional rights of Kyrgyz citizens.
"We will stand our ground," said Eldar Tadzhivaev, MMTUK president.
Altynken LLC is a joint Kyrgyz-Kazakh venture (60 per cent owned by Summer Gold PLC, 40 per cent by Kyrgyzaltyn JSC). The company exploits the Taldy-Bulak Levoberejny minefield in the Chuy Province, near the town of Kemin, with gold reserves at 2 million ounces and silver reserves at 1.8 million ounces. The mine has the third largest proven gold reserves in the country after the Kumtor and Jerui mines.