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Co-workers back down on threat to quit in solidarity with trade union activist

Alyaksey Pawlowski's co-workers have backed down in a row with the management of a state-owned construction company that intends to sack the bricklayer and trade union activist.

In a sign of support for Mr. Pawlowski, who was notified by the management of Mahilyow-based Pramzhylbud earlier this year that his employment contract would not be extended, all of the other 15 members of his bricklayer team threatened in a letter that they would quit the job if he was sacked.

The threat prompted Pramzhylbud managers to hold one-on-one meetings with all of the bricklayers and nearly all of the men eventually reversed their stance and stopped making any demands.

"On the whole, there has been no much persecution, just slight pressure," one of the men who asked not to be named told BelaPAN.

"Three men have proved to be the most steadfast, so to say. They have changed their demands to a call for extending the contract with Pawlowski."

He revealed that the workers had been threatened with dismissal. "Some cannot lose their job as they have children. Of course, everything was done under pressure. You understand what is happening in the country," he said.
Mr. Pawlowski, an activist of the Independent Union of Electronic Industry Workers who gained prominence last year for asking the Language and Literature Institute of the National Academy of Science to examine Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s insulting remarks about the European Commission president and the Ukrainian president, believes that he will be fired for his political views and his effort to defend the rights of workers.

His contract expires on February 10.