Uzbek Workers Stage Rare Strike

Workers at two major factories in the city of Fergana have staged a series of strikes to demand their wages, some of which have not been paid since October 2002.

The strikes are among the first cases of large-scale industrial unrest in Uzbekistan, where the authorities clamp down on all forms of dissent, and this is the first time strikers have sustained their protest actions.

Hundreds of angry employees at the Fergana Petroleum Refinery, FPR, and the Fergana Chemical Factory for Furan Compounds, FCFFC, walked out on Tuesday, August 26, claiming that they could no longer put up with their “intolerable poverty”.

The day following the strike, two FPR workers, Bahodyr Alimov and Ismail Mallabaev, announced that they were going on hunger strike, and sent a telegram to President Islam Karimov demanding that action be taken.

Mallabaev told IWPR, “By working at this petroleum refinery, we bring in millions of sums of revenue but for some reason our salaries are constantly delayed.

“Meanwhile, the factory bosses change their foreign cars like gloves – yet we can’t support our families.”

It was the third such strike in less than a month, following walkouts on August 1 and 11, both of which led to promised concessions from management which mostly failed to materialise.

The third walkout aimed to bring employees of both factories together in a single demonstration, but police and security personnel moved quickly to quash this. A cordon was thrown around the refinery, and hundreds of chemical factory workers – who had travelled across the city to join their FPR peers - were stopped on the outskirts of the property.

Embittered workers are convinced that the authorities have no intention of paying the salaries, and are determined to continue putting pressure on management.

More than 7,000 FPR workers have not received their salaries since April of this year. This prompted the first strike, organised on August 1, after which the management agreed to pay just one month’s wages to around a tenth of the workforce.

Later, with the authorities preparing to celebrate Uzbekistan’s independence day on September 1, all workers were given ten kilograms of rice instead of their monthly salary. This caused further resentment among the workforce.

“I decide for myself what I buy with my salary,” fumed FPR worker Farhad Ismailov. “And this rice we were given works out at 700 sums a kilogram when it only costs 550 sums at the market.”

Meanwhile, officials estimate that more than 300 million sums – around 300,00 US dollars – are owed to workers at the FCFFC, many of whom haven’t been paid for nearly a year.

“Because I haven’t been paid, the material situation of my family has got as bad as it could possibly be,” said FCFFC worker Muzaffar. “It’s got to the stage that I can’t send my children to school, let alone being able to feed them.”

The strike has already had serious consequences for the workforce at both factories, many of whom claim they have been pressured or openly threatened by internal affairs officers.

FPR workers told IWPR that the most frightening of these was the death of their foreman, 43-year-old Ravshan Norkuziev, who collapsed and died after allegedly being threatened by the factory administration following the August 11 strike.

Bahodir Alimov said that the foreman had been called to a meeting held by the factory managers, where he was “insulted and threatened”. After this meeting, Norkuziev returned to his workplace, where he died suddenly, apparently from cardiac arrest. An autopsy revealed that the foreman had been suffering from a heart condition, and no criminal case will be opened.

This news has done little to mollify employees, however. “Norkuziev died prematurely after demanding his money,” alleged Alimov.

Meanwhile, the authorities have moved to play down reports of industrial action in the city, which is the administrative centre of the large and densely populated Fergana valley region.

Maqsuda Muminova, representing FCFFC’s management committee, denied that a strike had taken place, claiming instead that the factory has been temporarily closed for repairs and its workers given unpaid leave. FPR management refused to comment on the strikes to the media.

Analysts warn that if the situation is not resolved soon, further disturbances are inevitable. Tashkent sociologist Bahodyr Musaev said, “Today in Uzbekistan we have a clear picture of a crisis changing into a national catastrophe.

“Citizens have only one concern in life – how to find money to last at least another day, and how to feed and clothe their children. This hopeless life causes despair in society, and anger and brutality builds up. Eventually, people no longer believe in anything.”

Nigora Sodikova is the pseudonym of an IWPR correspondent in Fergana.