Barysau: Primary Organization of Radio-Electronic Trade Workers Not Registered for 5th Time

According to www.praca-by.info

Liudmila Harnak, chair of the ideological department of Barysau city executive committee, informed the administration of the primary organization that the filed registration documents were printed in a wrong type, 14 instead of 14,5.

The RET trade union has tried to get registered in Barysau for two years already. At first the trade union activists tried to register the organization of Barysau Auto-tractor Electrics Plant, but the primary organization dissolved because its members were made redundant. Second time the landlord refused to provide a legal address to the trade union. The third attempt failed because the chair of the ideological branch of Barysau city executive committee pressurized the then chair of the primary organization to refuse from this position, thus leaving the organization without leader. The fourth time the authorities found violations in the form of election of the governing organs: the activists elected a chair and a deputy chair for the organization whereas they were to have elected a trade union committee. The trade union confessed its mistake and after correcting it filed its documents for registration for the fifth time.

However, even the type size can hinder the activity of a trade-union in Barysau. ‘The authorities are evidently reluctant to register an organization that really helps workers. They seem to examine our documents with a microscope. In the times when our country is deprived of trade preferences for failure to meet the requirements of ILO convention #87 that guarantees the right of workers to establish trade unions for protection of their interests, we are denied the right to association because of a wrong size of type in our documents,’ commented Mikalai Pakhabau, the chair of the RET primary organization in Barysau.