Siarhei Housha: I Am Independent Trade Union Activist And I Am Proud Of It

Baranavichy activist has spoken in support of the REP trade union.

A wave of interrogation of REP independent trade union activists is rolling along Brest region. The calls to the police concern the criminal case against trade union chairman Henadz Fiadynich and trade union accountant Ihar Komlik, Brest Spring informs.

Union activist Siarhei Housha from Baranavichy visited the Investigative Committee again. Last time, on January 26, Siarhei was summoned by investigator Ihar Salanevich, and then he demanded that the questions in the case, as well as the documents, were in Belarusian. This time the demand was fulfilled, the questions were translated, and the interrogation was conducted in the Belarusian language.

The questions concerned the independent trade union and the criminal case against Fiadynich and Komlik.

"Everything is coming to the closing of the independent trade union, – Siarhei Housha says, – this independent trade union is a burr in the authorities’ saddle, it cramps the style."

"I am one of the founders of the Baranavichy branch of the trade union, and I have not taken part in any further trade union’s affairs, but I have been supporting it, including morally, I am an activist of the independent trade union and I am proud of it.

I believe that the trade union must work and be independent. A dependent trade union, the one that was Soviet, it has stayed Soviet, it is not a trade union, it is a parody of the union, because it supports the authorities, and a real trade union must support and help workers. If the authorities were interested in the independent trade union’s activities, then it would help the trade union, but it does not help, only hinders. This persecution is felt in Belarus. It can be seen, but it must be the other way around. The trade union must participate in the drafting of collective agreements, everyone must facilitate it."