How factories go on strike in Belarus

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Some are on strike, others are in thought. How Belarusian enterprises work today

Yesterday an impressive column of workers from a number of capital enterprises walked around Minsk. Employees of MTZ, MAZ, MTZ im. Kozlov and the Minsk Motor Plant merged and together went to the building of the Belteleradiocompany. Some of them went on strike and decided not to go to work until their demands were met. Protest actions were also held in other Belarusian cities, although not on such a large scale. We look at how events are developing and what is happening in factories today.

Belaruskali

Several thousand people gathered in the center of Salihorsk yesterday evening. The core is the employees of Belaruskali. People collected signatures and said that they intend to go on strike (of course, not all).

What is happening today is not yet entirely clear: the enterprise has a complex structure and many divisions, and therefore there is no general information on it. According to one of the employees of the organization, today miners canned equipment - it costs millions of dollars and can fail if not used. This is how the people are preparing to go on strike. However, at the moment it is not clear whether the strike will be massive.

Belkhimprofsoyuz, in turn, sees the current situation as follows:

- The situation is not very simple. The workers are agitated, and by those people who are not responsible to them. Our trade union supports the point of view that all issues should be resolved within the legal framework. Including the use of force by law enforcement agencies. Today people are offered to go on strike, which, in accordance with our legislation, has no legal basis, since political demands are being put forward. According to the law on trade unions, a strike cannot have political demands.

Again, the strike is illegal. And the employer had only to carry it all through the government agencies and recognize it as illegal. And then those people who are being led out into the street today will suffer. This is a refusal to work, so the consequences - up to and including dismissal. We explain this to people.

At the same time, the miners tell Onliner that they are offered the following option: people sign a document that they are not on strike, but they are transferred to 2/3 of their salary, and released. Also from the management of the enterprise there are threats to stop the operation of the collective agreement.

The trade union is reassuring, but the workers seem to be determined: “There is definitely a strike at Belaruskali. Of the 6 mines, not a single one is being mined. Three out of four factories are standing (gray vertical drums speak about this), the fourth factory is working emptying ore reserves in warehouses, but for how long - I don’t know,”explained an employee of Belaruskali, who sent such photos taken with a slight time difference.

15:00

A rally of Belaruskali workers began on the central square of Soligorsk. Now there are about 500-600 people there, people are slowly pulling up.

15:40

The head of the headquarters of Viktor Babariko, Maria Kolesnikova, joined the workers. She urges people not to be afraid, to go all the way and not to succumb to empty promises of power. The people react cheerfully. The number of those present, according to some miners, has already exceeded a thousand.

MTZ

Yesterday morning, the caring employees of the Moscow Electric Tractor Plant named after Kozlov, who have been in the news for almost the entire last week. They started chanting and urging colleagues to join the action. After some time, some of the MTZ workers left through the checkpoint: they officially started a strike and, together with their colleagues, went to the march.

Today the Tractor Plant continues a partial strike. The strike committee meets with the leadership of MTZ, which insists on a legalized form of protest. This means that the strike had to give two weeks' notice of the strike. Otherwise, the collective agreement is violated with the ensuing consequences.

While all the events take place outside the entrance of the plant. The meeting on the territory in front of her was planned for 9:00, but so far it has been postponed to 11:00. Workers passing by say that mostly people are sitting in their workplaces, but doing nothing. They were given time to think until 11:00, when the meeting with the director was to take place.

The plant's management offers the following compromise option: employees must collect 10,000 signatures (two-thirds of the total number of employees) and go on strike honestly in two weeks, according to the law.

- We are not lawyers, we are ordinary workers. Therefore, everything was done very spontaneously, with emotion. Due to the fact that everyone is afraid of being fired, only 250 people spoke today, don't judge us. Only today independent lawyers began to contact us, who suggest what to do and how to do it. We are preparing for a strike and are now going on vacation at our own expense, - explained one of the workers of the plant.

- The workplace will be saved for everyone. And every day we will gather and hold a meeting. How many of us will there be? I don’t know,”said the foreman of the already organized strike committee.

11:40

Not all MTZ employees share the strike mood. One of the workers, for example, being next to the entrance, stopped and told the activists to go to the workshops. The woman also clarified that she went to have her teeth treated thanks to the plant.

Still, the strikers receive more words of support and approval, thanks for this in return. People are discussing that everyone will not be fired, so you have to stand up to the end. In addition, the management itself does not threaten with layoffs, but asks to go on strike in their free time or on vacation, so as not to stop production.

One of the employees of the MTZ marketing center (the woman introduced herself as such) complained that the screams under the windows interfered with her and the team's work, so they called the police.

General Director of MTZ: "No comments yet, no one is firing anyone."

The protest at MTZ in numbers. This is how active protesters assess the events: yesterday, leaving their jobs, about 4 thousand people went to the city. 500 people continued to strike this morning. About 200-250 people are ready to sign a vacation application at their own expense.

At the same time, several hundred supporters gathered on the square in front of the plant. They ask MTW workers not to give up and promise to help everyone.

15:30

The first shift at the plant has ended, the workers are leaving the entrance and moving through the corridor from those who have gathered to support them. The people are chanting "Strike", "You are not alone", "One for all and all for one." Someone brought a whole trunk of pizzas, which are distributed to the factory workers.

The column began to move along the city streets.

The column, in the ranks of which there are workers of MTZ, came to the Government House at the beginning of the seventh.

MAZ

MAZ is still at the machines. The workers say that they have no concrete plans: they are at their workplaces and think about what to do next. As one of the employees told us, some of the strikers were forced to write explanatory letters in which they demand to explain their absence from the workplace (photographs are available in the editorial office). Others claim that their immediate superiors hint at sanctions in case of absence from work, but this information could not be verified.

MAZ employees report that people are starting to gather in the street.

- So far there have been 200 people, but people continue to gather. Today, documents are being drawn up so that everything is official and cultural, - said an employee of the plant.

15:40

At half past three, the first shift ended at MAZ. People began to go out into the streets, they were greeted by sympathizers, chanting "Well done", and morally support.

Atlant

The Minsk Refrigerator Plant, as far as one can understand, continues its work. Yesterday there was information on Telegram channels that a local strike could begin at 11:00. But so far, mostly young people have gathered in the square near the central entrance.

Proactive citizens are not dressed in factory uniform and actively encourage the employees of the enterprise to join them. The call "Atlas, do not frost" or "Atlas, come out" is often heard. So far, there are about a hundred people here.

The appeals of those present were eventually heard. Several people in factory clothes emerged from the factory building. People shout “Well done”.

Zhabinka sugar plant

Judging by the information in the chat room of the city, the workers of the plant this morning went to the building of the Zhabinka District Executive Committee to meet with representatives of the local authorities.

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Belenergosetproekt

Yesterday, employees of the Belenergosetproekt Institute joined the ranks of the protesters. Today events are developing in the following way: “We planned to gather at 11 o'clock in the morning in the assembly hall and discuss everything, but the director confiscated the keys and, accordingly, we failed to do this. They also demanded that we write explanatory notes for yesterday. Someone wrote, but the majority refused. At 12 o'clock we left work and went on foot through the city to support one of the striking factories. After the events of yesterday, there are fewer of us, 60-70 people are walking, but we are cheerful,”said one of the institute employees.

METZ them. Kozlova

The electrical plant, which was one of the first to talk about problems last week, is silent today: all employees are at their workplaces.

President's visit

So, in November 1963, Kennedy arrived in Texas. This trip was planned as part of the preparatory campaign for the 1964 presidential election. The head of state himself noted that it is very important for him to win in Texas and Florida. In addition, Vice President Lyndon Johnson was a local and the travel to the state was emphasized.

But the representatives of the special services were afraid of the visit. Literally a month before the president's arrival, Adlai Stevenson, the US representative to the UN, was attacked in Dallas. Earlier, during one of Lyndon Johnson's performances here, he was booed by a crowd of … housewives. On the eve of the President's arrival, leaflets with the image of Kennedy and the inscription "Wanted for Betrayal" were posted around the city. The situation was tense, and troubles awaited. True, they thought that demonstrators with placards would take to the streets or throw rotten eggs at the president, no more.

Local authorities were more pessimistic. In his book The Assassination of President Kennedy, William Manchester, a historian and journalist who chronicled the assassination attempt at the request of the President's family, writes: “Federal Judge Sarah T. Hughes feared incidents, Attorney Burfoot Sanders, senior Justice Department official in this part of Texas and the vice president’s spokesman in Dallas told Johnson’s political adviser Cliff Carter that given the city’s political atmosphere, the trip seemed "inappropriate." The city officials had trembling knees from the very beginning of this trip. The wave of local hostility towards the federal government had reached a critical point, and they knew it."

But the pre-election campaign was approaching, and they did not change the presidential travel plan. On November 21, a presidential plane landed at the airport of San Antonio (Texas' second most populous city). Kennedy attended Air Force Medical School, went to Houston, spoke at the university there, and attended a Democratic Party banquet.

The next day, the President went to Dallas. With a difference of 5 minutes, the vice president's plane arrived at Dallas Love Field airport, and then Kennedy's. At about 11:50 am, the motorcade of the first persons moved towards the city. The Kennedys were in the fourth limousine. In the same car with the President and the First Lady were US Secret Service agent Roy Kellerman, Texas Governor John Connally and his wife, agent William Greer was driving.

Three shots

It was originally planned that the motorcade would travel in a straight line on Main Street - there was no need to slow down on it. But for some reason, the route was changed, and the cars drove along Elm Street, where cars had to slow down. In addition, on Elm Street, the motorcade was closer to the educational store, from where the shooting was carried out.

Shots rang out at 12:30. Eyewitnesses took them either for the claps of a cracker, or for the sound of the exhaust, even the special agents did not immediately find their bearings. There were three shots in total (although even this is controversial), the first was Kennedy wounded in the back, the second bullet hit the head, and this wound became fatal. Six minutes later, the motorcade arrived at the nearest hospital, at 12:40 the president died.

The prescribed forensic medical research, which had to be done on the spot, was not carried out. Kennedy's body was immediately sent to Washington.

Workers at the training store told police that the shots were fired from their building. Based on a series of testimonies, an hour later, Police Officer Tippit attempted to detain warehouse worker Lee Harvey Oswald. He had a pistol with which he shot Tippit. As a result, Oswald was still captured, but two days later he also died. He was shot by a certain Jack Ruby while the suspect was being taken out of the police station. Thus, he wanted to "justify" his hometown.

So, by November 24, the president was assassinated, and so was the prime suspect. Nevertheless, in accordance with the decree of the new President Lyndon Johnson, a commission was formed, headed by the Chief Justice of the United States of America Earl Warren. There were seven people in total. For a long time, they studied the testimony of witnesses, documents, and in the end they concluded that a lone killer had attempted to assassinate the president. Jack Ruby, in their opinion, also acted alone and had exclusively personal motives for the murder.

Under suspicion

To understand what happened next, you need to travel to New Orleans, the hometown of Lee Harvey Oswald, where he last visited in 1963. On the evening of November 22, an altercation broke out at a local bar between Guy Banister and Jack Martin. Banister ran a small detective agency here, Martin worked for him. The reason for the quarrel had nothing to do with the Kennedy assassination, it was a purely industrial conflict. In the heat of the argument, Banister pulled out his pistol and hit Martin in the head with it several times. He shouted: "Will you kill me the way you killed Kennedy?"

The phrase aroused suspicion. Martin, who was admitted to the hospital, was interrogated, and he said that his boss Banister knew a certain David Ferry, who, in turn, knew Lee Harvey Oswald quite well. Further, the victim claimed that Ferry convinced Oswald to attack the president using hypnosis. Martin was considered not entirely normal, but in connection with the assassination of the president, the FBI worked out every version. Ferry was also interrogated, but the case did not receive any further progress in 1963.

… Three years have passed

Ironically, Martin's testimony was not forgotten, and in 1966 New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison reopened the investigation. He collected testimony that confirmed that the Kennedy assassination was the result of a conspiracy involving former civil aviation pilot David Ferry and businessman Clay Shaw. Of course, a few years after the murder, some of this testimony was not entirely reliable, but still Garrison continued to work.

He was hooked on the fact that a certain Clay Bertrand appeared in the report of the Warren Commission. Who he is is unknown, but immediately after the murder, he called New Orleans lawyer Dean Andrews and offered to defend Oswald. Andrews, however, remembered the events of that evening very poorly: he had pneumonia, a high temperature and he took a lot of drugs. However, Garrison believed that Clay Shaw and Clay Bertrand were one and the same person (later Andrews admitted that he generally gave false testimony regarding Bertrand's call).

Shaw, meanwhile, was a famous and respected figure in New Orleans. A war veteran, he ran a successful trade business in the city, participated in the public life of the city, wrote plays that were staged throughout the country. Garrison believed that Shaw was part of a group of arms dealers who were aiming to bring down the Fidel Castro regime. Kennedy's rapprochement with the USSR and the lack of a consistent policy against Cuba, according to his version, became the reason for the assassination of the president.

In February 1967, the details of this case appeared in the New Orleans States Item, it is possible that the investigators themselves organized the "leak" of information. A few days later, David Ferry, who was considered the main link between Oswald and the organizers of the assassination attempt, was found dead at his home. The man died of a cerebral hemorrhage, but the strange thing was that he left two notes of confused and confused content. If Ferry had committed suicide, then the notes could be considered dying, but his death did not look like a suicide.

Despite shaky evidence and evidence against Shaw, the case was brought to trial, and hearings began in 1969. Garrison believed that Oswald, Shaw, and Ferry had conspired in June 1963, that there were several who shot the president, and that the bullet that killed him was not the one fired by Lee Harvey Oswald. Witnesses were summoned to the trial, but the arguments presented did not convince the jury. It took them less than an hour to reach a verdict: Clay Shaw was acquitted. And his case remained in history as the only one brought to trial in connection with the Kennedy assassination.

Elena Minushkina