Ucrania - Independent union leader victimised

In August the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine (KVPU) reported that a representative of one of its new branch unions was being victimised. The Free Trade Union of Railway Workers of Ukraine (VPZU) was created after workers at the municipal authority-owned company Electrotrans in Khmelnitsky (central-west Ukraine) faced a three-month delay in the payment of their salaries. Management responded to the creation of the union by trying to destroy it and victimising its representative Anastasia Podpruzhnikova. They threatened to sack her, and made her drive old, unsafe trolley buses during her shifts. The director of the company was also a member of the city council and used his position to force a doctor to destroy Podpruzhnikova’s sickness record and registered absences. The company imposed an illegal penalty on her for being a member of the trade union committee, and local traffic police stopped Anastasia for no reason. An officer advised her “to resign from this work because you are going to have big problems”.