Trade Union Seminar held in Vilnius

14.06.2006.

According to Salidarnasts Internet newspaper, the seminar hosted by the international NGO alliance Solidar united activists of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions and the Belarusian Trade Union of Radio electronic Industry Workers, as well as representatives of trade unions and parties from Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and other countries.

One of the basic issues was that connected with Belarus. According to Esa Suominen, councilor to the Finish minister of foreign affairs, Belarus preference loss will equal 282 mln euros per year. A Euro Parliament member Yustas Paletskis said that trade sanctions against Belarus so far have been supported only by Poland and Lithuania. The final decision is likely to be taken in the near future.

Arturas Cherniauskas, chair of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Lithuania, in his turn touched upon the common problems of ex-Soviet countries. He noted that the working migration level is so high, that in some 5 years these countries will face serious problems with shortage of employees. Under these circumstances, trade unions from various countries are starting active cooperation and call upon those who have already gone abroad to join the local trade unions, which would protect their interests.

The same issue was spoken about by a Solidar activist Barbara Caracciolo, who presented Solidars Worthy Labor Campaign. The main goal of this international project is to provide worthy vacancies all over Europe.

Vasile Choarik, head of the Public Relations Department of the Moldavian Confederation of Trade Unions, held a seminar in PR campaigns, saying that PR can be based only on the truth and complete information.

The seminar was closed by a speech by Hubert Cambier, Acting Head of Coordinating Unit for Central and Eastern Europe of the International. Confederation of Free Trade Unions. He told about the history of the Belarusian issue. He also said that Belarus had been included into ILOs special paragraph again, which is an evidence of systematic violations of trade unions rights in the country.