Leaders of Belarusian independent trade union not allowed to plants

• 23.01.2010, 9:32

The administration of the Mozyr refinery equated the independent trade union to an external organization.

Yury Shvets, the head of the primary organization of the Belarusian Independent Trade Union of the Mozyr Refinery Workers, and two trade union members were unable to get to their workplace on January 21.

The gate passes to the plant were blocked. The administration equated the trade union to an external organization and demanded that the activists should exchange their permanent pass to temporary ones, “Salidarnast” reports.

The primary organization of the Independent Trade Union has been functioning at the refinery for 18 years. According its leader Yury Shvets the organization has never had troubles with permit to the refinery. The organization faced problems in 2009.

“That happened five times last year,” Yury Shvets said. “They pretended these were technical errors. Then under pretext of a repair, they re-encoded my pass. The refinery works 24 hours a day, so I had a 24-hour pass. I could go to the plant at any time. Anything can happen, this is industrial process.”

The union activists couldn’t get to the refinery in the morning January 21. Moreover, the employer said all negotiations on that issue ended.