by James Parks, May 6, 2011
Representatives of trade union organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from across Europe are meeting in Brussels today to discuss serious violations of human and workers’ rights by the government of Georgia.
Among the countries of the former Soviet Union, only in Georgia has the once government-dominated union federation reformed and become a truly free trade union federation. However, since 2008, the Georgian government has waged a wholesale and vicious attack against the Georgian Trade Union Confederation (GTUC) and many of its affiliates.
The country’s labor laws were gutted in 2006. Meant to attract investment, the new code leaves workers and trade unionists with few rights on the job in law or in practice. For example, in the public sector, the government has blocked dues deductions from union members to the unions, starving the organizations of funds. The government has installed police watchdogs in schools and intimidated union representatives and teachers, all while promoting a fake, government-controlled union and encouraging or threatening members of the legitimate union to disaffiliate.
As a result of Georgia’s anti-worker actions, the AFL-CIO filed a petition with the U.S. Trade Representative to remove trade benefits for Georgia.
“Ten years ago we witnessed in the post-Soviet union area the same brutal union busting as we now see in Georgia,” says Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
Georgia is seeking to become a member of the European Union. But workers say behind then country’s façade of democracy and economic growth lie a growing number of human rights violations and total disregard and ignorance of health and safety issues.
GTUC President Irakli Petriashvili says:
European decision makers should not have any illusions that behind the democratic façade there is a government that is devoted to busting the democratic values and interests of workers. We cannot accept the increasing insecurity and lack of rights and the fact that workers are risking and losing their lives at work and that their organizations are being attacked by the authorities.
