Yara must break with Belarus – NRK Urix – Foreign news and documentaries

– We still believe in dialogue as a tool for improvement, writes Yara communications director Kristin Nordal in a message to NRK.

He adds that Yara is increasingly concerned about the deteriorating security situation in Belarus.

From his exile in neighboring Lithuania, Tikhanovskaya posted two messages on Twitter. There, he urged Yara and two companies from Germany and Austria to break cooperation with the Belarusian company Belaruskali.

He also writes that Yara should publicly condemn the abuses of the business management in Belaruskali and the leaders of Belarus.

Largest export company

Belaruskali is a big and important piece for the Belarusian president. Belarus is one of the world’s largest producers of potassium, which together with nitrogen and phosphorus are the most important elements in Yara’s fertilizer production.

Belaruskali, through its sales company BPC, is also the largest exporting company in Belarus. Therefore, it is also one of the most important contributors to the Belarusian treasury and indirectly to the Alexander Lukashenko regime.

Belaruskali workers were among the first to protest after official results gave the president 80 percent of the vote in the August 9 elections.

Many believe it was opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya who won the election.

Central miners

There were large demonstrations and celebrations in the mining town of Soligorsk after the elections. But the authorities have responded strongly. Many of the leaders of the strikes and demonstrations have been jailed and, according to the opposition, eight of them have fled the country.

Yara Geir Sundbø, the group’s shop steward, tells NRK that he and the Norwegian trade union movement are closely following what is happening in Belaruskali.

He believes, as does the group management, that it is still wise to maintain a dialogue with the company.

– In this way, we have the opportunity to have a continuous dialogue, a certain opportunity to influence, says Sundbø.

The union leader says that among Belarusian workers there is a different view of what the tactic should be to achieve what everyone agrees on: get rid of Lukashenko, who has been in power in the country since 1994.

– There is no doubt that the strike committee, which has many disorganized members, wants a harder line. But the trade union movement, which applies both to independents and to those with closer ties to the authorities, we believe it must remain. That is the way we can pressure the authorities, Sundbø told NRK.