Homel: Administration of Bus Depot #1 Continues Pressurization of Belarusian Trade Union of Workers of Radio-electronic Industry

According to the press-service of the trade-union movement of Belarus, V.Khadarkouski, director of the bus deport #1 of Homel, stated that Belarusian Trade Union of Workers of Radio-electronic Industry (REI) was a branch of the Belarusian People’s Front and almost an anti-state organization. Earlier he tried to lynch trade union activists with the assistance of the law machinery. He stated that the leader of the local trade union unit Aliaksandr Ieuseichuk acted on behalf of unregistered organization. As a result Mr Ieuseichuk was sentenced to pay fine and only thanks to legal aid the execution of this court verdict was suspended. On 27 February at working place there died 22-year-old driver Mikalai Mazharenka, member of the trade union. According to his colleagues, this day the director talked with him several times, inclining to leave the trade union. In March the police confiscated from the regional representative of the trade union Viktar Kazlou 70 applications of bus drivers about joining the trade union. As a result the director obtained the list of the organization members, which let him enforce the pressurization. As a result 20 persons left the trade union. Six of them wrote applications to the chair of REI Henadz Fiadynich that they had left the trade union because of the threats of the enterprise administration. All applications about leaving the trade union are kept at the personnel department of the depot, though they are to be passed directly to the trade union. According to Mr Fiadynich, it witnesses that people leave the trade union on the initiative of the administration.