Babruisk: trade union activist not admitted to tractor plant again
As said by the leader of the Free Trade Union of
Belarus at the Tractor Details Plant Mikhail Kavalkou, his entrance permit has
been blocked since 8 October again. Bear in mind that earlier he had faced such
a problem in spring and solved as a result of court proceedings.
“Little time has passed since the visit of a delegation with the head of the
Babruisk City Executive Committee Dzmitry Bokhanau, the deputy Minister of
Industry Ivan Dzemidovich and other officials to the plant. At that time its
head Aliaksandr Ahranovich stated that all trade unions were equal for him and
this conflict was a result of personal misunderstandings between me and him.
Now, after a month plus something, we have returned to the same problems
again,” states Kavalkou.
He also notes the recent increase of pressurization on members of the
independent trade unions. The administration is reluctant to give them
promotion, increase their wages and prolong the labor agreements.
“The new ideologist Uladzimir Yeliseyenka, deputy head of the enterprise on
personnel, does not value qualified workers,” states Mikhail Kavalkou. “It is
him who takes the decisions about dismissals, without taking into account the
experience and qualification of workers. Such light-mindedness has a negative
impact on the quality of the production. By the way, he tried to coax the
people to leave the trade union, promising a bottle of champagne to each of
them for the New Year. The first deputy head on business issues Uladzimir Kisel
also forced workers of the sale storehouse to leave the independent trade
union. All this was done in the time when about 200 tractors and about 10,000
wheels are rotting on the territory of the plant. It would be better if he took
his office duties as seriously as his attempts to ruin our trade-union,”
commented the activist.