Georgia: "Agara-Sugar" factory workers demand production restart

For the second day, 500 people hold their protest action at the gate of the sugar factory in the village of Agara with a demand to resume factory operation stopped in November 2017. The stop of the factory has paralyzed the life of the village, the trade union has stated.

The action began on March 2; the protesters demand a meeting with the Prime Minister of Georgia, the Association of Independent Trade Unions (AITU) of Georgia has reported.

Legally, the factory is not closed; and people are still considered to be its employees; but they cannot work and receive their wages, since the production was completely halted.

"For six months already, the workers receive no wages, because the 'Agara-Sugar' factory can't work at a loss, because of the availability of cheap imported sugar in the market," Eteri Maturadze, a deputy chair of the AITU, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Factory workers have stated that if their demands are ignored, they will block the highway Tbilisi-Senaki-Leselidze, which connects Eastern and Western Georgia.

According to Zaza Alborashvili, a trade union activist, the stop of the factory "has paralyzed the life of the whole village of Agara." "Out of 7000 Agara villagers, 500 work at the factory, that is, about half of the villagers depend on the factory's work," Alborashvili said, adding that people are in a desperate situation, without any subsistence means.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.