Tamta Kakauridze, Zestaponi
Workers, metallurgists and miners of the Zestaponi Ferro Factory and Chiatura Mining Factory have been holding protest demonstrations since April 20 to protect their labor and social rights. The demonstrations were simultaneously organized in Zestaponi and Chiatura. The employees of the both enterprises request meeting with the administration of the Georgian Manganese Ltd in order to resolve all problems through the dialogue with them.
The main requests of the metallurgists and miners are improvement of the working environment, 50 % increase of the salaries and recruitment of the two illegally fired workers Shakro Bregvadze and Giorgi Giorgidze.
Chairman of the Imereti region Trade Union of Metallurgists and Miners Tamaz Dolaberidze said these people are members of the Trade Union and it was reason for their dismissal from the work. More precisely, Giorgi Giorgidze is board member of the Imereti region Trade Union; Shakro Bregvadze is the father of the one of the activists of the TU Goga Bregvadze. Their firing became one of the main reasons to start strikes in Zestaponi and Chiatura.
100 representatives of other fields and administration of the United Trade Union of Georgia joined the demonstration of 400 people in Zestaponi. The fired workers think the reason of their dismissal was their cooperation with the Trade Union.
“Every worker of this enterprise has signed three-month labor agreement; after it expires, the administration has full right to dismiss the workers. However, it should not be done illegally. Although the labor agreements with all workers expired on March 31, only two people were fired earlier without explaining the reason,” said Giorgi Giorgidze in his interview with the humanrights.ge
The warning demonstration on April 20 did not have any result. Administration of the Georgian Manganese Ltd did not agree to start negotiations. Just the opposite, they held meetings throughout the whole week in order to prevent the workers to participate in the strike. However, 70 % of the employees took part in the strike; more than 500 people joined the demonstration and expressed their protest against the working situation in the enterprises owned by the Georgian Manganese Ltd.
After the warning demonstration, on April 23, the enterprises of the Georgian Manganese Ltd stopped working including the ovens of the Ferro Factory. In parallel to the strike, five strikers – Goga Bregvadze, Giorgi Giorgidze, Ramaz Peradze, Gela Chumpadze and Khvicha Mdivani started hunger-strike.
“The strikers committee decided to start hunger-strike because we are not sure the administration of the Georgian Manganese will start negotiations on time. We think, the administration intends to prolong the time in order to make the people tired. We have nothing to lose. Unbearable working conditions made us go out in the street and we will fight for our rights till the end,” said Giorgi Giorgidze.
The strikers and hunger-strikers are near the factor administration building. The deputy director of the factory Davit Chanturia offered them to start negotiations; however, the administration has not met them yet. At least, neither party has reported about the meeting by Monday.
Such a large-scaled strike of the workers has not turned into a political protest yet. However, the representatives of the National Movement are seriously concerned about the fact. On April 23, the single mandate candidate Kakha Getsadze and officials of the local authority met the strikers to agree the format of the negotiations. However, the strikers were not satisfied with the negotiations with them because Kakha Getsadze demanded them to stop the strike and return to their working places. The negotiations organized throughout the day did not have any result. The factory administration said they were ready to satisfy all requirements of the strikers except increase in the salary. Besides that the administration is waiting for the meeting and decision of the factory shareholders in Kiev.
In parallel to these negotiations, the administration of the Georgian Manganese Ltd tried to lead the workers into the factory under threat and it resulted into the incident. The head of the security monitoring at the factory, his driver and the head of the security guard insulted and assaulted the activist of the Trade Union Goga Bregvadze.
“We tried to stop the bus which was taking the workers into the enterprise. The head of the security monitoring Tornike Guruli, his driver Gia Dugladze and the head of the security guard Gia Chitorelidze pulled me out and started to beat me together with several more people,” said Goga Bregvadze.
Gia Dugladze was already suspected in watching Goga Bregvadze. On April 10, he was informing the administration about the meeting of the workers in Zestaponi cinema-house. The humanrights.ge wrote about it on April 21 (see article: http://www.humanrights.ge/index.php?a=article&id=4913&lang=en); however, this fact was not responded then.
The strike did not finish without incidents in Chiatura either. The strikers reported that on April 23, as soon as their protest started, in the Itkhvisi village mine, the director Nugzar Jokhadze entered the mine together with the security guards; the activist of the Trade Union Merab Iakobidze works in the mine. The director ordered to block the exits of the mine; he took Iakobidze out of the mine, insulted and physically assaulted him. Merab Iakobidze is 55 years old and he has worked at the Chiatura mine for 27 years. He has professional trauma on the right leg.
The Trade Union imposes entire responsibility over the administration of the Georgian Manganese Ltd.
The strikers committee stated that unless the administration starts dialogue with them on time, the strike will last for two weeks.
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