Strike, exile, arrest: what happened to Belarusian workers?
After Belarus’s presidential elections in 2020, two waves of labour protests swept across the country’s businesses – a few days after the announcement of the voting results in mid-August, and then in autumn when politician Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya called for a nationwide strike.
Hopes for strike action, however, never truly matched the reality, as enterprises pressured workers, and Belarusian law enforcement targeted citizens in the aftermath of the presidential election.
Mediazona, a media outlet focusing on law and justice, spoke with workers at three different enterprises who took part in last year’s protests to find out how they happened. As part of our coverage of Belarus, openDemocracy has translated and republished this article with permission here.
Alexey Karlyuk, 35, is from the town of Salihorsk, where he has worked as an electrical fitter at the state-owned potash company, Belaruskali, since 2006. On 9 August, he went to vote and at 10pm headed to the mine for the night shift.
