Russian building workers' congress highlights success in organising Tajik migrant workers

International Federation of Building and Wood Workers, 26 October 2005

Presently holding its IV Congress in Moscow, IFBWW Russian affiliate, Construction and Building Materials Industry Workers' Union, highlights its success in organising migrant Tajik workers in the Russian Federation.

Around 300 delegates including many partners from IFBWW/Byggnads project participate in this important event highlighting the union's successful migrant project with ILO Moscow. The project has been encouraging construction workers to join trade unions in order to improve their conditions. In five months, it has organized 2.500 migrant workers.

Russia is the destination for 85 per cent of Tajikistan's migrant workers, and a quarter of them head for Moscow, where they mainly end up in the construction industry. Tajikistan is the poorest of the former Soviet republics, with 80 per cent of its population below the poverty threshold.

Based on an agreement between building workers' unions in the two countries, it also encourages employers to abandon illegal recruitment practices which increase workers' vulnerability.

Both IFBWW General Secretary, Anita Normark, and IFBWW project coordinator, Ambet Yuson attend the building workers' union event.