Solidarity with the Workers’ Movement in the Ukraine

After the presidential elections other faces and names appeared in the Ukraine, but the “new” state power continues the attacks on the militant workers’ unions in the same way as as the “old” one. Thus the management of the joint stock company “Krasnodonugol” (combine of a series of mines in the Lugansk region that is owned by the billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, whose protégé has recently become president) decided to take revenge on the militant and actually independent workers’ organization, the Independent Miners’ Union (NPG) of the Barakov mine, with “outraged composure”. For the director, the straw that broke the camel’s back was the fact that the NPG stood up against the deterioration of the working conditions of the miners.

An “integrated wage system” had been elaborated especially for the combines “Krasnodonugol” and “Pavlogradugol” of Achmetow at the beginning of the year 2010 – and with it worse working conditions in essence. Apart from that, the paying of wages was fixed personally, and now it depends to a great deal on the individual relation between superiors and workers. The NPG stood up resolutely against these changes, describing them as a transformation of workers into peasants in serfdom. The new system corresponds neither to the national nor international requirements, standards and norms of work organization.

The Independent Union demands that payment be carried out in line with the industry agreements and laws of the Ukraine. And it succeeded in getting the state labor inspection in the Lugansk region to demand from the management of “Krasnodonugol” that it immediately cease the violations of the laws regarding the payment of the miners. The masters of the enterprise not only failed to meet the demands of the court, but even dismissed several activists of the NPG. And this is by far not the first attempt to take revenge on the union. The NPG described the act of the management “not only as a crime in the form of a severe violation of the labor laws, but also as an act of revenge against the union and the entire working-class movement, as an attempt to transform the workers into silent slaves”. And they went to court against the dismissals. As a result the majority of the activists were re-employed, despite the hard resistance of the court as well as of the management. They continue the struggle against the management und the masters of “Krasnodonugol”. However, the leader of the NPG, Dmitri Kalitventsev, is still dismissed.

Help is necessary for the re-employment of the militant trade union leader! Solidarity and support from the troops of the working-class movement of all countries is necessary!

The Coordinating Council of the Working Class Movement of the Ukraine (KSRD) asks people to send protest letters to the following addresses in the Ukraine:

President: ul. Bankovaya, 11, Kiev, 01220, email: press@apu.gov.ua

Cabinet of Ministers: ul. Grushevskogo, 12/2, Kiev, 01008, email: portal@kmu.gov.ua

Chief public prosecutor: ul. Reznitskaya, 13/15, Kiev, 01601

Supreme Court: ul. Pilipa Orlika, 4а, Kiev, 01024, email: web_editor@scourt.gov.ua

Government of the Lugansk Region: pl. Geroyev WOW, 3, Lugansk, 91016, email: gubernator@loga.gov.ua

As well as to the embassy of the Ukraine in your countries.

Send copies of this letter to the address of the Coordinating Council of the Working Class Movement of the Ukraine (KSRD): ksrd@pisem.net