Auditorium 115

6 Posts

•

0 Followers

Auditorium 115

Tbilisi Metro resumes service as drivers and Mayor Kaladze reach agreement

by OC Media

•4 min read

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

Auditorium 115

Mayor Kaladze dismisses striking metro drivers’ demands as Tbilisi metro closes

by OC Media

•3 min read

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

Auditorium 115 protest in March 2016 (Dominik K. Cagara/Archive)

Analysis

Labour rights are back on the radar in Georgia [Analysis]

by Volodymyr Soboliev

•5 min read

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

Abkhazia

Georgia’s youth are taking to the streets — both on the left and the extreme right [Analysis]

by Volodymyr Soboliev

•7 min read

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

Auditorium 115

Students, trade unions, and women mark international workers’ day in Tbilisi

by OC Media

•2 min read

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. The first demonstration started at the the Georgian Government Chancellery build

Auditorium 115

Are Georgia’s disparate left-wing protesters consolidating into a coherent political force?

by Volodymyr Soboliev

•7 min read

A wave of protests unusually widespread for Georgian leftist groups hit the capital Tbilisi this winter, after revelations of dreadful labour conditions in the country emerged. The question is, whether the protests can be transformed into a genuine, grassroots left-wing movement. After several unsuccessful trials, the grassroot workers’ movements from Tbilisi and beyond have found the power to stand together against harsh working conditions and exploitation, activists argue. Left-wing gr