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OC Media

OC Media

Armenia’s copper capital no longer? The uncertain future of Alaverdi

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The smelter plant in Alaverdi. Photo: Gayane Mkrtchyan/OC Media

For years the copper smelter was the economic heart of Alaverdi, but its operation came at a price, the plant spewed thousands of tonnes of toxic emissions into the air. Today the smelter’s terrible envi­ron­men­tal record finally caught up with it. [Read more…]

Stuck between a rock and a hard place — the miners of Tkibuli

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Mine workers inside the Mindeli coal mine in Tkibuli, Georgia. Photo: Lana Kokaia/OC Media

When an explosion in the Mindeli mine in the west-Georgian town of Tkibuli killed four and injured six, coal mining in the town briefly shut down. In the interim, some miners have sought work abroad, while others stayed to work for new owners. In either case, the miners’ found little respite.  [Read more…]

Inside Georgia’s textile industry: Part I — Unions

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Illus­tra­tion by Dato Parulava/OC Media.

Georgia’s textile industry is plagued by low salaries and rife with labour abuses. In this multi-part series, OC Media went inside the factories for a first-hand account. In part I, we look at how employees are organ­is­ing and how the unions work (or don’t) at the Kutex and Imeri factories in Kutaisi.
[Read more…]

Analysis | The gender wage gap in Georgia exists only among the well off

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Workers of Chiatura manganese mines, archive (Mari Nikuradze /OC Media)

New polling by CRRC and NDI showed that unem­ployed women demand sig­nif­i­cant­ly lower salaries to start working than men. However, deeper analysis by CRRC suggests that this dif­fer­ence exists only among the better off. [Read more…]

Human Rights Watch calls on Georgia’s government to end dangerous mining practices

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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…]

Railway workers quit en masse after wildcat strike in central Georgia

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The Kvishkheti tunnel con­struc­tion site. (Photo: Kartli.ge)

Sixty railway con­struc­tion workers at an inter­na­tion­al company in Georgia’s central Shida Kartli region have left their job after unsuc­cess­ful­ly demanding a raise. [Read more…]

Voice | ‘I have a child, a house, and a business, why on earth would I wash your socks?’

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Keti Tomeishvili (Nina Baidauri / Women of Georgia)

‘I was 29 when I had to emigrate and returned 14 years later. My sister was very young when she was diagnosed with an aneurysm. The doctors told her her chances of survival were only 2%, but I really wanted even this tiny chance.’ [Read more…]

Speaking up through sewn lips: a wildcat strike in Chiatura

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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…]

Workers injured due to safety violations at Panorama Tbilisi construction site

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Panorama Tbilisi. (Natia Amiranashvili/Liberali)

Three people have been injured working on the con­struc­tion of Georgia’s con­tro­ver­sial Panorama Tbilisi project. Video footage from imme­di­ate­ly after the accident showed that safety rules were not being followed on the site. [Read more…]

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