Hundreds gathered in central Tbilisi on 1 May to celebrate International Worker’s Day, and to demand better labour conditions for workers.
Activists held three separate rallies in Tbilisi, and later joined forces to demand an ‘effective labour inspection mechanism’, to defend women against discrimination at workplaces, and to urge the government to include social rights in the upcoming constitutional changes.
Thefirst demonstration started at the the Georgian Government Chancellery building at 13:00, where around a dozen women’s rights activists were demanding a ‘gender-sensitive labour inspection mechanism’ which would guarantee fair protection of women’s rights at workplaces. Left-wing group ‘Women’s Gaze’ and the larger ‘Georgian Women’s Movement’ organised the event, in demanded of a ‘gender sensitive’ labour code, as women often face discrimination in the workplace.
They were joined by a group of vendors affected by the fire on 30 January at the Bavshvta Samkaro market, who have held sporadic protests in front of the chancellery building since.
May Day March (Mari Nikuradze/OC Media)
According to Georgia’s National Statistics Office, the average salary for women is only 64% of that of men.
The second demonstration started outside the main building of Tbilisi State University on Chavchavadze Avenue. Student group Auditorium #115 gathered in front of the university at 14:00 to celebrate Labour Day.
‘Solidarity to the most oppressed class of our society — workers’, ‘Which side are you on — the banks, or the people’s’, protesters shouted out.
Students were demonstrating against labour rights violations in the country. There are no official statistics on the number of fatal workplace accidents so far in 2017, but data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs shows that 58 people died and 85 were seriously injured as a result of occupational accidents in 2016. Since the ministry started producing statistics in 2011, 270 workers have died and 776 have been injured.
Auditorium #115 started marching to Rose Revolution Square, where they joined with a third demonstration at 15:00. Members and supporters of the Georgian Trade Union Confederation (GTUC), along with other left-wing groups (Solidarity Network of Tbilisi, Constitution for Equality, and others) had gathered at the square.
By 15:00, all the groups started marching through Tbilisi’s main Rustaveli Avenue and gathered in front of the former parliament building, where leaders of the GTUC addressed the demonstrators. Only one member of parliament, from the Social-Democratic party of Georgia showed up at the demonstration.
The Tbilisi Metro resumed functioning Wednesday afternoon, after metro drivers union Ertoba 2013 reached an agreement with Mayor Kakha Kaladze and his office. The metro had been closed since Monday morning, when after being barred from going on strike by the courts, drivers began a hunger strike instead, making them physically unfit to work.
Kaladze thanked the metro drivers and said the Mayor’s Office had ‘reached a compromise with workers’, saying that the matter of pay rises would be rev
Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze has dismissed demands by metro drivers for higher pay. The Tbilisi Metro shut down on Monday, less than a day after metro drivers began a hunger strike. Passengers were not warned in advance about the possible shut down, only to see a message about it posted on station entrances, offering free bus rides instead. Traffic jams, overcrowded buses, and a shortage of taxis were reported on Monday morning.
The Tbilisi Transport Company, who operates the metro, have con
Over 1,000 workers were killed or injured in occupational accidents in Georgia from 2011–2016, according to data compiled by the Applied Research Company, a consultancy. Almost every month, yet another worker plunges to his death from Tbilisi’s shockingly unprotected highrise construction sites or a story of worker humiliation or exploitation hits the news. Labour issues have returned as fertile ground for Georgian activism.
With a series of large protests having been held in the industr
In May 2016, Tbilisi’s Kiwi Café — a vegan hangout for city hipsters — was hit by nationalist youths armed with meat sausages. The grotesque spectacle was obvious click-bait in today’s attention seeking social media, but it did highlight a new trend: social and lifestyle issues increasingly trump Georgia’s latent political rifts, and young people are at the forefront of this evolution.
Students lead the way
In March 2016 Georgia’s oldest and largest university, Tbilisi State Universit
Hundreds gathered in central Tbilisi on 1 May to celebrate International Worker’s Day, and to demand better labour conditions for workers. 
