On 19 April, the LabourStart platform launched a campaign to collect signatures for a petition demanding the release of trade union leaders and activists arrested a year ago in Belarus.
The campaign is carried out in cooperation with several international organisations, including the Salidarnasts association, the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF), IndustriALL Global Union and Public Services International (PSI).
The Salidarnasts association was set up by Belarusian trade unionists who fled the country for security reasons. It supports trade unionists arrested and convicted in Belarus by Aliaksandr Lukashenka's regime and provides them with humanitarian, legal and informational support, as well as assistance to their families.
The Association calls on everyone to join the struggle for the release of the Belarusian political prisoners. The signature collection campaign on the LabourStart platform is a step in this direction, allowing people to express their support for the Belarusian trade unionists.
You can sign the petition here.
LabourStart is an online news service supported by a global network of volunteers that serves the international trade union movement by gathering and distributing information and helping unions campaign and in other ways.
Its functions include daily links to labour news in 35 languages and a news distribution service used by hundreds of trade union websites. News is gathered from mainstream, union and alternative news sources by a network of nearly 1,000 volunteer correspondents from all continents.