Union Leader: More And More People Join Protest Movement

The expansion of the strike movement continues.

Strict measures of the authorities encourage workers of enterprises to go on strike, chairman of the Belarusian Independent Trade Union (BITU) Maksim Pazniakou said, naviny.by reports.

According to him, there are about 130 people on strike at Belaruskali and other Salihorsk enterprises, 20 at Naftan, 1 at the Polatsk Glass Fiber, 11 at BMZ, 30 at Hrodna Azot. Several people are on strike at the Belarusian Railways and several other enterprises, Maksim Pazniakou notes.

"Last week, Naftan employees became more active. In our opinion, this is caused by the dismissal of an active member of the independent trade union, Volha Brytsikava. During the week, 7 people joined the strike. This is the reaction of the team to her dismissal," - the trade union leader believes.

"Obviously, the expansion of the strike movement depends on the actions of the company management, the actions of the authorities. The tougher are the actions, the more significant is the event, the more workers decide to go on strike, it causes a surge of indignation among workers", - Maksim Pazniakou notes.

He says that recently Aliaksandr Lukashenka has set the task to involve all the unemployed and "parasites" in the work.

"I think that his statement is also related to those who go on strike in order to somehow get them to work so that they do not strike. Most likely, this rhetoric has been directed at them too," - the BITU chairman believes.

In his opinion, as for the strike, "it is far from being over". "As Brytsikava's dismissal showed, any action on cracking down, suppressing, discriminating, and committing lawlessness leads to a retaliatory reaction. Every day the authorities come up with new reasons for their actions and more and more people do not trust the authorities and join the protest movement", - Pazniakou notes.

On October 26, a national strike was announced in Belarus because of non-fulfillment of the requirements specified in the ultimatum delivered by ex-presidential candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya on October 13: resignation of Aliaksandr Lukashenka, end of violence and release of political prisoners. However, due to large-scale repressions at enterprises the strike turned into forms of "partisan struggle", as earlier Chairman of the Belarusian congress of democratic trade unions Aliaksandr Yarashuk said. According to him, external forms of protest have gone deep inside, including in sabotage and Italian strikes.