Residents of Shukruti blocking the entrance of a mine. Photo: EMC.
Residents of Shukruti, a village near the industrial city of Chiatura in western Georgia, have shut down several mines demanding compensation for damages to their homes caused by the mines. [Read more…]
A tunnel where miners work in Chiatura. (Mari Nikuradze / OC Media)
International rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the Georgian Government to improve safety conditions for miners, slamming the country’s deregulation of labour safety. [Read more…]
Georgian Manganese’s enrichment plant in Chiatura. (Mari Nikuradze / OC Media)
After starting a sudden and unsanctioned strike earlier this month, miners in Chiatura stitched their lips together to demonstrate how much their hazardous occupations cost. [Read more…]
Beka Chumburidze and Levan Maskharashvili (Tiko Kvaliashvili)
Three men have sewn their lips shut and are on hunger strike in the central Georgian mining town of Chiatura in protest at what they say is ‘police harassment’. Protesters are demanding the resignation of local police officials after an incident on 26 May that resulted in nine arrests.
Protest in Chiatura (Sopho Aptsiauri /Liberali)
Dozens of miners gathered in Chiatura, an industrial town in central Georgia, on Thursday in a demonstration organised by the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation’s youth wing, demanding ‘dignified working conditions’ for miners. They were asking for higher pay, collective contracts, and safe working conditions from Georgian Manganese, the company that owns the manganese mines in the town. If their demands are not met, they say they will hold a bigger demonstration. [Read more…]
(GTUC)
A worker died in a mine in Chiatura, an industrial town in central Georgia, on Monday, after a tunnel collapse. [Read more…]
Miners from Tkibuli protesting for a ‘better labour code. February 2017 (Luka Pertaia/ OC Media)
Raisa Liparteliani is the Vice President of Georgian Trade Unions Confederation.
From 2007 to January 2017, 437 people died and 716 were injured at work in Georgia. A lack of safe workplaces is one of the greatest challenges facing workers in Georgia, and one the authorities are failing to rise to. [Read more…]
Manganese mine in Chiatura (Luka Pertaia/OC Media)
Georgia’s Kutaisi Court of Appeals overturned on 30 June a ₾200 million ($82 million) fine imposed on mining company Georgian Manganese.
Manganese mine in Chiatura (Luka Pertaia/OC Media)
Mining company Georgian Manganese has expressed concern at the Ministry of Environment’s decision to appoint a ‘special manager’ to the company. They claim that because of the state-appointed manager’s lack of competence, their operations have been ‘paralysed’. [Read more…]
A wave of protests unusually widespread for Georgian leftist groups hit the capital Tbilisi this winter, after revelations of dreadful labour conditions in the country emerged. The question is, whether the protests can be transformed into a genuine, grassroots left-wing movement.
