Short Update on Miners Protest in Georgia
Updates on Chiatura miners protest in Georgia: After protesting the closure of the mine every day in the mining town of Chiatura, the miners held a rally in the capital in front of the government's HQ on March 24th. Hundreds came down to Tbilisi!
Here is my footage where the miners all marched in to meet the protestors from Tbilisi who were waiting for them. The chants typically are "Victory to Chiatura" "Victory to Georgia" "Chiatura is strong" "Victory to Chiaturians" "Victory to miners/workers" and variations.
There were long and detailed speeches from miners, where they discussed at length what developments are taking place. One of the newer demands is that the yellow union, GTUC, claiming to represent them in negotiations should not be included in "Tripartite commission," but delegates that represent miners.
The miners's demand comes from the fact that recently the Georgian Trade Union Confederation (GTUC) which has been absent started making its presence known and going on TV to denounce the miners as radicals (as communists as well) and tarnish their demands while claiming to fulfill its centrist role to sue the mining company.
GTUC has deliberately held a monopoly in tripartite commission between labor, government and business (we know firsthand, our unions tried to become members but were rejected) GTUC immediately said to government and company that they should hold negotiations in the commission.
This move to hold negotiations in tripartite was intentional to keep away miners - who have been fighting to keep the mine open- from the negotiations. GTUC also was redirecting fight into courts but if the company claims bankruptcy, the miners won't be able to get anything.
So the Monday's rally was about hundreds of miners coming to Tbilisi to let the government know, GTUC does not represent them and that they need to be sitting at the table negotiating. The government so far has not made any comment including the miners in negotiations.
Last week, the Prime Minister made a comment when a journalist asked about Chiatura and he said nationalization was out of the question, but that government has responsibility and then deferred that there was a tripartite happening at the same time he was interviewed.
Needless to say, the PM's comments weren't met with enthusiasm from miners because it wasn't a strong statement in their favor and deferred to tripartite where they were excluded from and nothing new or helpful really has emerged from that meeting.
After Monday's rally, a dozen miners stayed back in Tbilisi & went to different media channels for interviews. Yesterday a rally was held in front of GTUC office to protest them for their unaccountability, the theft of their union due fees.
The rally in front of GTUC turned heated as the GTUC reps and even the president went up to the protest side and here he is screaming at the miners and calling them stupid (he also cursed at them after). While the miners have been saying, we are starving, we have no money.
While the Tbilisians and the dozen or so miners were protesting GTUC in Tbilisi, a parallel action in Chiatura was going on where they kicked out or attempted to kick out the GTUC local union from their office.
Georgian miners gave speeches detailing their case. On charges of "communism" one of the leaders said, "You bait us as communists yet here you are in the building that communists build and vacation and make profits in hotels communists build for workers, all given to you."
(all the videos are in Georgian, apologies!)
After the rally, the miners then went to the Bank of Georgia where many miners have loans, asking - not demanding - that the late fees accrued during non-payment be forgiven since they have been left out of work, lied to and are facing mass layoffs.
I noticed an old acquaintance walking towards rally, he used to be an activist, but now he is part of opposition party Lelo. I almost thought he was coming to show solidarity. He pretended not to notice the rally, veered off into the streets and took off.
Another rally is planned on the 29th in Chiatura at 13:00 (1:00 pm) with the same demands. The remaining miners in Tbilisi are going there tomorrow. Here is a backstory of the protest and another article by will be up tomorrow!
(This is the van of the miners, it says “Solidarity to Chiatura”)
Another really sweet thing I forgot to mention was that Armenian miners who had their own strikes a few weeks ago, wrote a FB post in solidarity with Georgian miners!!
Google Translated it to:
Shavarsh Margaryan
Mar 18
Hello everyone.
I try not to write long texts, because I know that many people get tired of reading, but this time I can't express what I have to say briefly. For us as residents of a mining town, the following is very important.
In Georgia, in the city of Chiatura, a protest action has been held since March 8, related to the operation of their mine. There, unlike our strike, the problem is a little different.On March 7, the workers received an SMS message that they will stop operating the closed mine, because it is no longer profitable. Only the open mine will work. 2500 of the 3500 workers were working in the closed mine, and now imagine their situation when their only source of income disappears overnight. The whole city is facing collapse. one can say that the city is "closing".
I from Kajaran want to express my support to workers like us and wish them strength and endurance in their struggle. They are now demanding compensation from the operating company, and I hope that the Georgian leadership will not turn a blind eye to this injustice.
And we, the citizens of Kajar, should learn a lesson from this incident. For all things end one day, and the wealth of our mine will one day be exhausted, and we shall never be its real owners: And before it is too late, together we must slowly try to reclaim our share of this mine. During the last strike, we were able to regain the right to speak that we didn't have for many years (don't try to convince me otherwise), and now that we have that right, we need to demand our share together:
In addition to the fact that we are fully entitled to it, in this way we will be able to insure ourselves and our children from the fate of Chiatura”
For a good article on the Kajaran Miners Strike in Armenia, read here.
Thank you for this.