Authorities in Vitsebsk press vendors to pull out of national strike
Few entrepreneurs in the regional center of Vitsebsk today walked out to join the nation-wide strike to protest against the presidential decree that will make them jobless effective from January 1, 2008.
Anatol Shumchanka, the leader of the entrepreneurs' union Perspektyva, told the European Radio for Belarus that Uladzimir Yaravikou, a deputy chairman of the local city hall, had ordered the directors of market places and trade centers to do anything to keep vendors working at their outlets on December 19. In their turn, administrators of the markets pressed entrepreneurs to dodge the strike.
“Market directors yesterday went public on the local radio telling entrepreneurs that they would lose their working places if they did not show up at work today”, Shumchanka said.
Eventually, only 20 percent of entrepreneurs in Vitsebsk did not fear to join the nation-wide strike.
