Part of employees on strike of Borjomi mineral waters announce rally at gov’t building

About 400  employees of Borjomi mineral waters in eastern Georgia have announced a rally in front of the administration building of the Government of Georgia next week.

 

The Borjomi controlling stake has been owned by Alfa Group since 2013 which was founded by currently sanctioned Russian billionaire, businessman Mikhail Friidmam.

 

Both bottling plants at Borjomi have been suspended since April 29 due to sanctions imposed on the businessman for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

 

The employees of two bottling plants of IDS Borjomi Georgia have the following demands:

 

Immediate reinstatement of 50 illegally dismissed employees..

 

Return to old contracts and increase in salaries by 25%. As well as dismissal of individuals engaged with coercion, pressure and blackmail.

 

Transition from fixed-term contracts to perpetual contracts.

 

Concluding a collective agreement.

 

The strike of Borjomi bottling plant workers started on May 31 after the mediation process ended in vain.

 

According to Merab Akhmeteli, head of one of the bottling plants, the company is in a “difficult situation, accounts are frozen, 80 percent of production and exports are suspended.”

 

He suggested that 630 people are currently employed in both plants and “only a part of them are participating in the strike.”

 

He said that the increase in salaries in the “very complicated situation” was unlikely.

 

The mineral water company is the main source of income for the population in Borjomi.

 

The local opposition says that the closure of the plans  will put not only each person employed there, but the entire municipality in a difficult situation.

 

Both bottling plants have been suspended since April 29 due to sanctions imposed on Russia.

 

Forty-nine employees were fired from the plans. Up to 1,000 employees were involved in the mediation process with the company’s management. The company, arguing for the crisis created, offered them amended terms of the contracts, which most of the employees intended to sign only on condition that they would receive a return to the old contracts once the company resumed operations.

 

On May 19, IDS Borjomi  controlling company, offered the Georgian government to transfer part of its shares free of charge.

 

The Ministry of Economy said that they were studying the proposal, later its terms would be submitted to the Ministry of Justice and only after that the information would be made public.

 

On May 21, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili told the media that Borjomi’s shares would be given as a gift to Georgia and that they would no longer have problems in the work.