REP Trade Union: Only All-Out Solidarity Can Help Workers Of Belarus

Representatives of the labor movement have chosen youth leaders in Minsk and are preparing to do so in Vorsha.

A meeting of the youth network of the trade union of the radio electronic industry (REP) was held in Minsk on May 13. Representatives of young people from Vorsha also attended the meeting. At the meeting, Dzianis Khudavets and Hanna Dus, the inhabitants of Babruisk, were elected as two co-chairmen-coordinators. Prior to this, the coordinator's position remained vacant for about a year. Now the two co-chairs will coordinate the work of the youth network, they will regularly contact the youth of Vorsha, Mahiliou, Pinsk, Barysau, Babruisk, Slutsk, Hrodna, Kalinkavichy and other cities, praca-by.info informs.

Chairman of the REP trade union Henadz Fiadynich and the trade union activist Andrei Stryzhak from Homel also attended. One of the plans of the youth was to create a service for psychological support for people who lost their jobs, since it was stated that this was one of the greatest stresses for health after the death of a loved one and divorce. It was decided to provide free help in composing a CV, to develop the REP brand more, to actively spread information about the life of the union through social networks, to organize informal meetings of youth for recreation and discussion of serious work issues. It was stated that the trade union should not limit itself with the tasks of helping workers in a difficult situation, but should also actively involve such people in the work of the union, as only all-out solidarity can help to solve or even prevent many problems with work.

It also became known that REP trade union activists from other cities will visit Vorsha in June. Andrei Stryzhak, an activist of the REP trade union from Homel, told about the results of the meeting and the nearest plans to orsha.eu:

The youth from different cities of Belarus came to the meeting to discuss the current problems. And a nice bonus - we have a coordinator, even two. They are Dzianis Khudavets and Hanna Dus from Babruisk. This is an unusual situation for Belarusian NGOs – we maintain gender equality.

– Lately, many REP activists have been detained, punished with large fines and days of imprisonment for speaking out against Decree No. 3, for protecting their labor rights and for other reasons. As a person who keeps statistics of repression against REP activists, could you tell me how many trade union members faced repression in 2017, how many are waiting for the trial or even are behind bars?

– The REP trade union as a whole was hit in the following way: 39 people were subjected to repressions, many of them were sentenced to 5, 10, 15, 25 days of administrative arrest, and some people were sentenced to large fines. And here it is necessary to draw attention to the solidarity of people. The Belarusian Diaspora around the world started to raise money via the BY_help page on Facebook to help detainees and their families. Thanks to such strong solidarity, it was possible to take the issues of administrative penalties off the table, to pay all the fines. But it's too early to talk of a joyful end. At the moment, we have one person, who is connected to the investigation of mass riots, which were not the case. This is the son of a trade union member Andrei Komlik. We follow all the developments in his case.

– You say that you will visit Vorsha soon. What kind of a meeting is this?

– It’s a meeting with Vorsha residents, including the REP trade union members, it is aimed at solving the problems of the region. It will be held in early June. We are still deciding on the format, I am personally in favor of an open format for the meeting, so that any interested person could come and listen about the REP trade union’s activities in the campaign to protect the public interests, and why it is our independent trade union that can most effectively stand up for the rights of workers. In the near future, we will draw up a schedule for other cities, which we will visit in the similar way, but Vorsha will be the first.