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BELARUSIAN FREE
TRADE UNION
COUNCIL Of Belarusian
Free Trade Union
About incessant Attempts
of Belarusian Government to Abolish Belarusian Free Trade
Union (the BFTU).
The Belarusian Free Trade Union states that
Belarusian government continue to violate Conventions No. 87
and No. 98 of International Labor organization (ILO), which is
ratified by the Republic of Belarus.
This fact is confirmed by the new document
which can course very serious negative consequences ; the new
document is a project of president’s Decree “On bringing
amendments in the Decree of the President of the Republic of
Belarus no. 2 adopted on 26.01.1999”
The mentioned project is supposed to establish
new requests for local unions, which are created at plants,
organizations and institutions and which are basis of trade
unions – “the tenpercent barrier”, i.e. that a local
union can be created and can work only if 10% of workers of an
enterprise are members of the trade union. Local unions, which
have not met the requests, will not be able to get “legal
address” and to be registered by local authorities, i.e. to
meet obvious requests which are prescribed by the Decree No.
2. Besides ‘the ten-percent barrier”, it is underlined
that the condition of registering is getting a “legal
address” from employers. The meaning of “legal address”
is not defined as legal category in civic legislation, what is
recognized by the Minister of justice.
Vagueness of the meaning “legal address”
allows local authorities and (what is a real nonsense!)
employers, i.e. managers of enterprises, to interpret the
meaning in the way which depends on how they personally
understand it and how they treat the BFTU. In practice it
leads to the consequences which we see in every-day life:
managers of a number of enterprises refuse to give “legal
address” to structures of the BFTU under absurd and forced
reasons. The conclusions are made:
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We deal with long-term and well—planned
campaign;
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2. managers, who are not free in their
actions, have definitely received the corresponding order
from the “top”. The sense of the order is to do
everything possible for abolishing the BFTU under personal
responsibility of managers.
Under the conditions, the BFTU makes the
only conclusion – the new attempt to abolish the BFTU is
being taken: the BFTU cannot have great membership because
of permanent psychological pressure on the BFTU members. If
huge state enterprise (Minsk automobile plant, Minsk tractor
plant and etc.) are saved in the current conditions it will
be almost impossible to create local union at the enterprise,
because it is necessary to unite about 2000 persons at once,
what is unrealistic.
In such conditions the Belarusian Free Trade
Union proclaims its protest and asks for support everyone
who is not indifferent to trade union’s rights and their
implementing in the Republic of Belarus, which are
guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus
and international agreements which are permanently violated.
Press-center of the Belarusian Free Trade
Union
Tel.:+375-17-284-31-82; fax.+375-17-284-59-94;
E-mail: spb@user.unibel.by
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