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.