ICFTU ONLINE...

Brussels October 6 1998 (ICFTU OnLine): On the eve of the national strike, which is expected to paralyse Russia (see ICFTU OnLine 210-98), the ICFTU has complained to the Russian authorities about the continuous victimisation and repression of Russian miners, many of whom have not been paid for over a year. One of the main demands of tomorrow's strike is the payment of wage arrears, which now run at US15billion (See also the ICEM cybercampaign).

The victimisation of the miners began last year after they had protested throughout the Russian Federation over the non-payment of wages and child-care allowances. In response, the authorities reacted by imposing huge fines (against those they knew had no money), imprisonment, and other measures.

For example, in January 1998, the Nerchinsk District Court sentenced 25 workers, the majority of whom were women, to a one-year suspended prison sentence and a fine the equivalent of nearly $US30,000, for having blocked railways in the Chita region. Previously, the courts had imposed one year (suspended) prison sentences on 16 women workers, who had also blocked the railways. The women had not been paid for over one year, nor received child care allowances, and had been protesting that this was causing severe health problems to themselves and their children.

The ICFTU has learned that in all regions, miners' trade union leaders are now under considerable pressure from criminal investigations on charges of alleged blocking of railways. They have learnt from reliable sources that there was tremendous pressure from the Office of the Prosecutor General to open up criminal investigations against them.

The ICFTU has written to Yurii Skuratov, the General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation, urging him to stop all surveillance, threats and criminal investigations of trade union leaders immediately. It has pointed out that as the non-payment of wages is, by the Russian Federation's own admission, one of the country's most severe problems, a restrained attitude by the authorities in the face of protests, is an essential prerequisite to finding a solution to the crisis.

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)
Boulevard Emile Jacqmain 155, B - 1210 Brussels, Belgium. For more information
please contact: Luc Demaret on: 00 322 224 0212 - press@icftu.org

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