On April 19, the Austrian Trade Union Confederation (ÖGB) took part in the International Day of Action for Trade Union Rights and Democracy in Belarus, demanding the release of the imprisoned Belarusian union leaders.
The ÖGB web-site points out that the Confederations has long been demanding the release of the arbitrarily arrested union leaders in Belarus and actively keeping the situation of Belarusian workers in the focus of the global community.
The ÖGB President Wolfgang Katzian stressed that the treatment of the Belarusian trade union center BKDP’s officers and activists who are now in prison dramatically clashes with the fundamental human rights. In his letter to the Belarusian Ambassador in Vienna, he also asked him to use his contacts in Minsk to resolve this situation.
ÖGB, along with many other trade union organizations of the world, is calling not only for the immediate release of all political prisoners including union members but also for the termination of politically motivated persecution and terrorization of workers, as well as for the restoration of their right to freedom of association.