19 March 2024, Tuesday, 12:16
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Your Boiling Milk Run Over

6
Your Boiling Milk Run Over

Which enterprise will light the "spark" for change in Belarus?

On May 11, workers at the Maladechna production site "Minsk Dairy Plant #1" went on strike due to low wages. They gathered at the checkpoint and threatened to quit. And while the local management of the plant was making excuses and threatening, managers from the head office of Minsk, who arrived urgently, quickly found a compromise.

This is not the first time the dairy plant has championed workers' rights. Last year, the employees of the enterprise greatly frightened the authorities with a sudden strike at the end of March 2021. At that time, the workers did not agree with the new labor contract, where the management decided to hold employees liable. Immediately, 63 people filed for resignation. Even the Minsk Regional Executive Committee had to intervene, which quickly changed the management at the enterprise, pretending that they were not aware of such internal decisions.

This year, the workers of three branches at once refused to work due to a sharp drop in wages. The wages of some vacancies at the enterprise in Maladechna fell from 1,000 rubles to 300, taking into account that the number of employees was also reduced from 200 to 50. And that was after they had promised the workers to sort out the tariffs, and pay one-time financial assistance for April. How the situation will develop in May remains to be seen.

There are hundreds of cases like Maladechna all over the country. Small businesses are forced to survive in unrealistic conditions. With the price tags that we see today in stores, a salary of 300 rubles leads people not to life, but to survival in extreme conditions. And the bosses just shrug and look away, pretending not to know how much their workers get paid. Therefore, such strikes are only the beginning. The situation is critical for the regime. Workers now have the official right to strike for economic reasons.

Gradual solutions of the consequences lead us to the solution of the main problem. If not for the dictatorial regime in Belarus, sanctions would not have been introduced. Russia would have lost its foothold for an attack on Ukraine. Thousands of people would be free. And hundreds of thousands would be at home, not abroad. And most importantly, we would save hundreds of lives. Lukashenka is the problem of all Belarusians, this man is dragging the whole country to the bottom.

Our solidarity with each other is the main weapon against the dictatorship. The dairy situation shows that even 50 people sticking together can achieve some results locally. And in order to save the country, we need to remember that there are millions of us with one goal — to live in a normal democratic and developed country. We don't know which enterprise will light a spark: a branch in a small town or a city-forming giant, it is important that our solidarity unites all spheres of labor, then we will win.

Long Live Belarus!

Artsiom Chernikau, exclusively for the Basta Telegram channel

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