PROFBUD trade union members from PROSCO company discuss strike strategies
On 19 March 2019 members of the Ukrainian trade union PROFBUD working for the PROSCO LLC company went on strike to get their back wages and convince the employer to comply with the collective bargaining agreement.
“This is our fourth strike in the last two years, where we are once again demanding the company to pay our back wages and comply with the collective bargaining agreement. This time the company owes us our back wages since January 2019,”, said Ludmila Mikhailuta, leader of the PROSCO company level trade union.
“I think that PROSCO is the worst employer in our region. The average wage in our region is around 300 Euros, but the average wage at PROSCO is half this and event with such low wages the company owns more than 65 thousand euros to workers,” said Ivan Sova, Chairman of Dnipropetrovsk regional PROFBUD branch organization.
PROSCO is a local Ukrainian company owned by local elites. The company management explains that back wages were caused by the seasonal financial problems of the company. The union does not agree with this argument as it is well known that the production segment of PROSCO company---Kaolin---has always been in a great demand in the construction and pharmaceutical industry and it is one of the prime materials that is exported abroad.
“The present owner of the company does not care about plant development and working conditions,” stated Ludmila Mikhailuta. She continued, “More than 2,000 people used to work on PROSCO, but now there are only 307 workers left. Workers are only receiving minimum wage and the company not only ignores our demands for a wage increase they fail to pay on time. However, our trade will continue to fight. Every day workers are increasingly angry, and we will continue to strike until our demands are met.”