The ITUC has denounced the sentencing of Nurbek Kushakbayev, Deputy Chairperson of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Kazakhstan, to two-and-a-half years in prison in connection with calls for a strike at the Oil Construction Company.
The Astana City Court No. 2 of Almaty District added a €75,000 fine for “damages” to the prison term.
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Alternative Turkmenistan News (ATN) reporter Gaspar Matalaev remains imprisoned on false charges of fraud, despite his family’s hope that he would be released in December and again in February, when others charged with the same offense were given presidential pardons. Matalaev likely remains imprisoned due to his work monitoring state-sponsored forced labor in Turkmenistan’s cotton harvest.
DetailsThe ITUC has written to the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, to demand the release of imprisoned trade unionists and an end to repression of the ITUC-affiliated Confederation of Independent Trade Union of Kazakhstan KNPRK and its affiliates.
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Kazakhstan’s main independent trade union confederation is fighting for its life, as a court reviews a “justice” ministry bid to have it shut down.
The legal onslaught on union organisation comes after a four-year drive against opposition political parties and independent media. Nevertheless the workers’ movement is not beaten: strikes, even where organised outside the law, are forcing employers and state authorities alike to back off.
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On 26-27 August 2015 leaders and activists of the Building Materials Workers Union of Tajikistan came together from different regions in the country to discuss migrant workers’ rights protection and pre-departure training.
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