Ukrainian Trade Unions Buried AEROSVIT but Not the Hope for Victory

March 27 around 300 workers of free trade-unionists got together at Hyatt Hotel in Kiev, the place where the round table “Commercial aviation: International experience and Ukrainian reality” took place.
The Trade Union of Civil Aviation of Ukraine with the support of Free Confederation of Trade Unions of Ukraine organized a protest action in order to draw attention of International and local aviation organizations to the corruption, illegal bankruptcy and violation of labor legislation and International Conventions.

The protesters carried out posters saying: “Ukraine is the country of total corruption”, “Today they killed AEROSVIT and tomorrow they will kill us”. They also brought a coffin with AEROSVIT name on it to remind about conscious and illegal abolishment of the company.

“We are here to demonstrate that the authorities will not succeed in what they do”,
said Vinniamin Timoshenko, the Head of the Trade Union in his speech in front of protesters, and continued: “Tomorrow the workers of IAU or any other air company can be in our shoes. Today the employers treat us as slaves and they can fire us tomorrow. Now at the round table, taking the example of Aerosvit, theyare discussing the possibility of foreign specialists’ employment in Ukrainian market and how, in a very discrete way, to make an air company go bankrupt”.

The fact of employment of foreign specialist in Ukrainian market makes the aviation professional perplexed as thousands of professionals are being sacked daily in Ukraine. The President of Ukraine is indifferent to the problems of aviation workers as it was shown in his response to the trade unions which contained only three lines versus 120 pages of the trade union appeal. “This shows how the Constitution Guarantor treats us. Four months on end the workers haven’t been paid for their work. If earlier we were requesting to dismiss some officials now we are doubt about the legitimacy of the whole state power”, - said the head of the trade union.

Despite dozens of appeals submitted to the courts, none of the employers was brought to court. According to the trade unions for three months only one criminal case against the General Director of AEROSVIT Company has been initiated, however that General Director went freely to Moscow.

The aviation workers admit that they lost hope for support from the Ukrainian authorities and they have addressed the European Court on Human Rights.