Campaign news

MINERS UNION ON THE ATTACK ON TRADE UNION FREEDOM IN LUHANSK

27th February 2015

MINERS UNION ON THE ATTACK ON TRADE UNION FREEDOM IN LUHANSK

The Ukraine Solidarity Campaign reports on the banning of the Independent Trade Union of Miners (NPG) by the forces who control the self-proclaimed ‘Luhansk Peoples Republic’.

This is a serious attack on trade union freedom in this area of Ukraine.  We publish below in full the latest report from the NPG branch at Barakova mine where they have organised for 23 years.  We appeal to the labour movement to declare its solidarity with these persecuted trade unionists in Luhansk. The full text is available on the branch website at NPG.

Oddities of “registration”
The events in the Donbas have to a greater or lesser extent affected almost everybody in Ukraine: the military operations, economic collapse, snap elections and a whole series of connected events have inevitably taken their toll on the work of various enterprises and organisations. The Donbas itself has been hardest hit, where factories and mines are closing, and small enterprises are collapsing.  As for those who have remained at work, they are obviously facing many questions and problems too. The company “Krasnodonugol’” and the trade union operating there, the Independent Trade Union of Miners (NPG) of the N. P. Barakova Mine, have found themselves in just such a situation.

It should be said that the NPG have always made efforts to remain on a legal footing and to fulfil the demands of the current authorities. So when the organisation received a demand delivered to its official mail-address from the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) to re-register, it took this question to the next conference. The delegates decided to carry out the required re-registration in accordance with all the new requirements. The people responsible for this work carried out all the formal agreements with the current authorities, but the result of all these procedures was unexpected: the re-registration was refused in accordance with the order “On the banning of the registration of independent trade unions on the territory of the Luhansk People’s Republic”.

In other words, the trade union was banned because of a single word in its name: “independent”.  It goes without saying, that such a refusal is absurd from a legal point of view, contradicting the active law of the same LPR “On trade unions”, in which, of course, no such limitations on names are defined. To add to which, the aforementioned order from the Minister of Justice of the LPR, A. V. Shubin, was published several days after the delivery of the registration documents.  It also has to be said that the trade union, among other things, was recognised as “safe” by the current authorities, and even passed an investigation checking for “extremism”.

So it turns out that, the LPR only needs “dependent” trade unions: clearly, other trade unions are simply not allowed.  Or are these some personal whims of the Minister of Justice A. V. Shubin, changing the laws of the LPR with his orders?

In conclusion, it remains only to put before the court that is our readership (because actual courts are not functioning in the LPR, and complaining about such ministerial orders does not appear to be possible) the copies of the decisions of all the stages of this “registration”.
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MINISTRY OF JUCTICE
LUHANSK PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC
pl. Geroev VOV, d.3, g. Luhansk, 91016
1/12/2014 No.522                                                                                             g. Lugansk
Independent Trade Union
Of Miners of the
N. P. Barakov MINE, town of Krasnodon
AND Krasnodon Region
Certificate No. 55 of the Certifying Commission for investigations of submitted documents for the state registration of civil organisations

The Certifying Commission has carried out a full investigation of the documents submitted for legal registration of the INDEPENDENT TRADE UNION OF MINERS OF THE MINE N. P. BARAKOV, TOWN OF KRASNODON AND KRASNODON REGION.

The Commission has determined the following:
in the documents submitted for the registration of the INDEPENDENT TRADE UNION OF MINERS OF THE MINE N. P. BARAKOV, TOWN OF KRASNODON AND KRASNODON REGION to the state registration service of the Ministry of Justice of the LPR, no aims or actions directed towards the carrying out of extremist activity were uncovered.

Chair of the Commission:                                        A. V. Shubin
Members of the Commission:                                  V. A. Kolpakova
1. V. Kirpa
***
TO MIKHAIL NIKOLAEVICH MIKERIN
No. 17, 17.12.2014
NOTIFICATION

On denial of state registration
1. Documents submitted for state registration are not filled out in the appropriate form, namely: in the documents the legal form and name of the legal person is incorrectly shown. (The list of legal organisational forms of trade unions is defined in article 3 of the law of the LPR “On Trade Unions”, taken by the Upper council of the Luhansk People’s Republic 30.06.2014 No.16-1).

2. In the registration card information about the guarantors of the legal person is not shown.
Refusal of state registration does not remove the right for re-submission of documents
State registrar:                      A. V. Kirpa

***
MINISTRY OF JUSTICE OF THE LUHANSK PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC
DEPARTMENT OF THE REGISTRATION PALACE
SECTION OF STATE REGISTRATION OF LEGAL PERSONS AND NATURAL PERSONS -
BUSINESSES, CIVIL ORGANISATIONS AND MEDIA REGISTRATION SERVICE OF THE KRASNODON
CITY AND REGIONAL ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

1. Artema, d. 15, g. Krasnodon, 94407
26.01.15 No. 7
To the chair
of the independent trade union of miners
of the N. P. Barakov Mine
M. N. Mikerin

Decision
on the refusal to carry out state registration of the legal person.
On 16.01.2015 the Chair of the Independent Trade Union of Miners of the N. P. Barakov Mine submitted documents to the Section of State Registration of Juridical Bodies and Individuals – Entrepreneurs, Civil organisations and Media in order to carry out state registration. In the course of the review of the submitted documents by state registrar, it was established that the documents do not correspond to existing legislation, namely:

In accordance with the order of the Minister of Justice A. V. Shubin on 20.01.2015 No.8-OD “On the banning of the registration of independent trade unions on the territory of the Luhansk People’s Republic’, and also in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 2 of article 25 of the law of the Luhansk People’s Republic “On the state registration of legal persons and natural persons”, the decision was taken by the state registrar to refuse the state registration of the legal person.
The decision in question will not be the basis for the refusal of resubmitted documents for the state registration of the legal body.

State registrar                                                       I. I. Rozhnova