28 February, 2022IndustriALL Global Union condemns in the strongest terms further attacks on union rights in Belarus, where the last couple of days have seen several independent union leaders detained.
On 24 February, unidentified men broke into the office of Free Metalworkers' Union (SPM) in Minsk. Without presenting any documents, they searched the premises and seized documents, office equipment, computer hard drives, as well as personal laptops and mobile phones of union leaders and staff.
SPM deputy chairman Oleksandr Yevdokimchik was brutally detained and taken to an unknown destination when daring to ask why the union office was subject to a search by people in plain clothes. He should face a court hearing on 28 February.
Communications with SPM union lawyer Ihar Komlik was disrupted in the morning on 24 February. The following day, he was sentenced to 15 days of detention.
On 27 February, the Belarusian Independent Trade Union (BITU) local chair at Naftan, Volha Brytsikava, was detained at a polling station, where a referendum on changes to the Belarusian constitution took place. She is now awaiting trial.
IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan says:
“We demand the immediate release of union leaders Oleksandr Yevdokimchik, Igor Komlik and Volha Brytsikava, and an end to continuing prosecution of independent union leaders and activists in Belarus.”