Henadz Fiadynich: People will take to streets when family scandals over money begin

Mass layoffs can lead to protests.

Henadz Fiadynich, the chairman of the electronics trade union, says in an interview with charter97.org that tension in society will grow if authorities do nothing, because empty fridges will lead to family scandals and people will take to streets as it was in the early 1990s.

“Layoffs and staff reduction are forced measures. Plants suspend their work today. They work only two or three days a week. Two months of the new year have passed, but plants don't see any prospects. Directors don't know what to do tomorrow and where to sell their products. Trade with Ukraine and even with Russia stopped. Our economy greatly depends on these markets, mainly on the Russian one. The problem is our economy as a whole,” he thinks.

– Have people got poorer?

– The purchasing power of the population has significantly decreased in Belarus. You can see it at markets and in grocery stores. People have begun to buy less products than before.

Another problem is that the number of those who cannot pay their utility bills is growing. Of course, some of them are problem families. But we have few of them. The biggest problem is that people don't have enough money. If earlier they earned, for example, 500 dollars, their current salary is 350 dollars. The government calls to measure prices in rubles, but it promised a salary of $1000 by 2015. Do we have it? Well, let's measure salaries in rubles, but fulfill your promise. Everything is based on the dollar, whether you want it or not.

An excellent illustration of our economic situation is the fact that our sportsmen leave for, for example, Kazakhstan. Wages and stability and higher there than in Belarus. You cannot close your eyes to this fact.

The number of Belarusians who go on shopping trips to Poland has decreased. It depends on a family's wellbeing. If one has to work only three days a week, he receives salary for three days. But people need to live every day. The economic situation is extremely difficult.

– How will the situation at state-owned plants develop?

– The government did everything to give more power to directors so that they can fire and lay off people quickly and for no reasons. On the other hand, plants should work, make and sale products. Directors will have to answer for it! However hard the government may try, I think people do something at the macrolevel, though their efforts are not enough to save the situation.

The government should have created conditions for the development of the medium-sized business, but it does nothing. Belarus cannot compete with Russia now. Russia has a developed private capital, so small and medium-sized businesses there and in Belarus play in different leagues. They created the Eurasian Union, but they should have created equal conditions for all. Unfortunately, it hasn't been done. Belarus has the worst business conditions.

They may speak about the “Belarusian miracle”, but there are no miracles. You can deceive people but you cannot deceive the economy.

– What is the probability of a wave of strikes at plants?

– I think nothing will happen until spring. It then will depend on the regularity and amount of salaries. It seems to worry the authorities, too. People will take to streets when scandals over money begin in families and expand to work as in the 1990s. One comes home and sees his family and children, whom he must teach and feed. If this problem arises, there will be no other way out.

– Where is the line? How long can we wait?

– Belarusians are patient people, but it something will definitely happen if everyone got squeezed. As of now, it doesn't hit everyone. Some continue to work, but some don't work already. Time will come when critical mass accumulates (it will definitely accumulate) and if the situation doesn't change, people will say what they want. It cannot last forever. We hear excuses that we don't have a war. But what has a war to do with it? If we don't have a war, it is supposed that we must live well and have decent salaries. People are not lazy. Give them work and they will do it. But they don't have good money for their work.