8/14/20
MINSK -- Workers at factories and other businesses across Belarus are joining protests in growing numbers to denounce the disputed presidential election that handed Alyaksandr Lukashenka a sixth term and sparked nationwide protests that have been brutally put down by authorities. In some of his first remarks on the growing work stoppage, Lukashenka said if the strikes continued, the workers "will not be able to feed" their families. His remarks televised on August 14 came amid reports that Prime Minister Raman Halouchanka had met face-to-face with striking workers at two major industrial plants in Minsk. In one of the latest work stoppages, thousands of workers at the Hrodna Azot chemical plant in the western Belarusian city of Hrodna walked off the job and met plant administrators and city authorities. The workers held up posters, saying "We demand Lukashenka's resignation," "We did not elect him," and "Our votes have been stolen." Lukashenka, in power since 1994, was declared the winner of the August 9 poll with some 80 percent of the vote. Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who drew crowds in the thousands at campaign rallies across the country and who has since left Belarus for Lithuania since the vote, finished a distant second with just under 10 percent.
On August 13, workers of the BelAZ plant in the city of Zhodzina near Minsk, which manufactures trucks and other construction vehicles and equipment, walked off the job, demanding new presidential election. One of the plant's employees, a technician who requested his name not be mentioned, told RFE/RL that the workers had put forward four demands: the resignation of Lukashenka and his government, an immediate halt to police violence against protesters, the release of all political prisoners and thousands of protesters detained during the last several days, and the holding a new presidential election with all candidates who had been barred from the recent poll. According to the employee, the workers warned that they will go on strike if their demands are not handed over to the leadership of the plant by 3 p.m. on August 17. A doctor from a local hospital said at the meeting that every day "people with terrible injuries are being brought to us," adding that she had "never seen such injuries in my life." People at the meeting carried out an impromptu poll with a majority raising their hand to indicate they had voted for Tsikhanouskaya.
