Georgian metallurgists go on termless strike

In the morning on September 13, the workers of the metallurgical plant "Hercules", located in the city of Kutaisi, announced a termless strike. The refusal of a hundred of workers to get to work was a continuation of the long-term conflict with the plant management.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the workers of the "Hercules" announced their readiness to go on strike, if the plant's management failed to take measures to improve their labour conditions, start collective bargaining and increase wages. Their preventive strike, undertaken on September 2, followed the dismissal of six workers, and, in the opinion of their colleagues, proved to be fruitless.

Let us remind you that on the eve of the previous strike the plant's managers sacked five members of the trade union.

On September 13, the strike began at 8:00 a.m. Workers gathered at the entrance to the territory plant and urged their colleagues to join the strike.

So far, nobody from among plant's managers or officials of the company "Eurasian Steels" has contacted the striking workers.

According to Irakli Petriashvili, Chairman of the Association of Trade Union of Georgia, so far, there were no collisions of the strikers with the police; only in the morning policemen demanded to remove the tents, installed by the strikers and intended for their accommodation.

Currently, the "Hercules" has stopped seven out of eight smelters.

"The plant employs 120 Indian workers. It's very difficult for them to understand what is happening, since almost none of them speak English or Russian. Nevertheless, the few of them who speak English came out today to us and said that they would probably join our strike or start their own one, because their labour conditions are also intolerable," said Irakli Petriashvili.

The "Caucasian Knot" has learnt that in order to thwart the strike, the plant managers invited twenty strikebreakers - occasional workers from the street. However, they failed to start the smelters.

"At about 4:20 p.m. there was an explosion at the plant. According to the workers, most likely it was the result of a failed attempt to start a smelter. The administration gives no information about what had blown up, and whether there are any victims," said Petriashvili.

The plant bosses make no comments on the strike. The central office of the "Eurasian Steels" has stated that the plant director and his deputy are away; therefore, official statement will follow next week only.