How officials crackdown on protesting workers (Video)

A video recording of the meeting between the government delegation headed by Alyaksandr Azyarets, Energy Minister of Belarus, and workers of the thermal electric power station No.5 has been received by journalists.

Construction of a plant for chemical pesticides’ production belonging to the Russian firm “Avgust” was discussed at the meeting. “Tovarishch” newspaper offers the footage of the meeting.

It is necessary to add that on May 14 an order “On bringing to disciplinary responsibility” was issued. Under the order, 100 workers of the thermal electric power station No.5 were reprimanded and deprived of their bonuses for May. The order reads: “On May 12, 2008 under an instruction of the Energy Ministry of Belarus a working meeting of Energy Minister with the personnel of the thermal electric power station No.5 was prepared. The issue of construction a plant producing chemical plant-protecting agents at the territory of Pukhavichy district was to be discussed. At 4.55 p.m. a group of workers defiantly left the place of the meeting before the working day ended. This was a violation of the internal regulations rules on the beginning and the end of the working day, and of the conditions of work contracts. Under Article 198 of the Labour Code of Belarus, leaving the working place earlier is considered a disciplinary violation of the rules of work. For performing the disciplinable offense I ORDER: 1. To reprimand and deprive of 100% of bonuses for May the following workers…” (the list of workers follows).

As we have informed, for a few months already dwellers of settlements Druzhny, Svislach, Rudzensk and other settlements protest against construction of a plant for chemical pesticides’ production. The construction is to be started by a joint Russian-Belarusian company “Avgust-Bel”.

Dwellers have collected about 6,000 signatures under a letter of protest sent to local and higher authority bodies. Soon they were pressurized and demanded to recall their signatures.