ZHODINO, 26 October (BelTA) – Calls for strikes have not resulted in economic damage to Belarusian industrial enterprises, BelTA learned from Industry Minister Piotr Parkhomchik on 26 October.
Asked about economic damage to Belarusian enterprises due to today's events, the official said: “Absolutely no [damage to the economy of the enterprises]. Products were made and shipped to customers as usual.”
In his words, enterprises run by the Industry Ministry operate as usual despite certain unrest. He remarked that the workers gathered up and discussed the current situation during the lunch break and during service breaks.
Piotr Parkhomchik said that taking into account calls for strikes in some Telegram channels and chats heads of the enterprises had a talk with the workers before the weekend. Apart from that, access control procedures at the enterprises were stepped up. “Because individual chats called for breaking the equipment, disrupting some manufacturing processes so that people, who show up for work on Monday, would not be able to do their jobs,” the industry minister explained.
The official believes that attempts to resolve problems by staging strikes will never accomplish anything, such ultimatum-like actions cannot result in something good.
“10, 15, 20 people would gather up, take photos of themselves and upload them to say that the factory is out of service, that the workers are on strike, that the enterprise does not honor its commitments. Today's law is very strict: people, who fail to do their jobs, in other words, people who disobey work arrangements will be called to account,” he stressed.
Speaking about the inadvisability of strikes, Piotr Parkhomchik referred to BelAZ as an example. The company is busy executing a major contract on supplying vehicles to India. A Belarusian bank has pledged $20 million to guarantee that BelAZ will execute the contract.
“If BelAZ fails to honor its commitments tomorrow, the company will lose $20 million. Who will benefit from it? Let's ask that the people, who protest in the streets and want enterprises to stop working,” Piotr Parkhomchik said.
