Fiadynich: If Authorities Do Not Hold Round Table, There Will Be Civil Disobedience Action

The people are ready to rise up if the problematic issues are not resolved in a civilized manner.

Chairman of the Independent Trade Union of Radioelectronics Industry (REP) Henadz Fiadynich has said this to the belaruspartisan.org site, commenting on the possible forms of nationwide protest in case the government does not agree to negotiate with the opposition:

– Strikes can’t be carried out legally in Belarus today. It's one thing to say it out aloud, and it’s another thing to do it. There have to be basic prerequisites in the society: when there are no salaries, work, when people work 2 days a week and they have nothing to feed their families with.

Our law on strikes is extremely bureaucratic. Our employer is the state. Therefore, a strike can only be held against the state’s actions in specific areas – wages, pensions, benefits, the increase in work experience up to 20 years, etc.

To conduct a strike, serious preparation is needed, focused primarily on workers of the enterprises. It is necessary to explain how and why it is done. Many people are not aware of that, a lot of them are intimidated, afraid to lose jobs, because they have taken on loans to buy apartments or cars. We are to create specific and understandable instruction forms and hand them out to people at the enterprises. Such an instruction is to be conducted within a month or two and then we can track feedback. The most important thing is that there have to be informal leaders at the enterprises, who could do it in due time.

If the authorities do not start holding national, regional round tables with people, if only the "talking" continues, and the problematic issues are not resolved, then the people can rise up, and no strikes will be needed, this will already be a civil disobedience action.