IUF Suspends Membership of the Agro-Industrial Workers' Union of Belarus

Posted to the IUF website 24-Apr-2003

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The IUF Executive Committee, meeting in Geneva April 9-10, suspended from membership the Agro-Industrial Workers' Union (AIWU) of Belarus for failing to meet the IUF membership criteria regarding union independence and democracy. This decision was only the second such case in the past 70 years.

Deposed AIWU leader Aleksander Yaroshuk gave the Executive Committee a full report on the union's takeover by the authoritarian regime of President Lukashenko in a police operation last September characterized by threats and blackmail. Destroying the independence of the AIWU paved the way for the state's takeover of the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus, the largest and most oppositional union umbrella organization. At the federation's "extraordinary congress" last September 19-20, Lukashenko openly called for the unions' "incorporation into the governmental authorities".

Yaroshuk had in fact been elected an IUF Vice-President in a show of solidarity with the struggle for democracy and independent trade unionism in Belarus. Based on his report, the Committee determined that the union was no longer a legitimate trade union organization according to internationally-recognized standards.

Suspension of an affiliated union is the strongest possible action that can be taken by the Executive Committee and takes immediate effect. IUF rules preclude a final expulsion by the Executive Committee since only an IUF Congress can take such action. The Executive Committee will be proposing expulsion to the next IUF congress - unless, of course, there should be a dramatic turnabout in the Belarus situation and the country's agro-food workers are able to reclaim their confiscated union.