16.09.11 A trade union was founded on August 4, 2011 in the “Hercules” Steel Plant in Kutaisi by 147 Georgian workers. FYI, the entire workforce is made up of roughly 350 workers, some 100 of whom are Indian workers. The “Hercules” Plant is owned by a Georgian-Indian jointly owned “Eurasia Steel”Company. The Georgians hold 51% of the shares of stock of the “Eurasia Steel” Co. The owner of the 51% shares of “Eurasia Steel” stock is Mr. Paata Chkheneli.

On August 11, 2011, six of the elected officials of the new trade union local in the plant were fired. The GTUC tried to speak with the plant managers to no avail. Finally, the GTUC announced that there would be a warning strike, which was eventually held on September 2, 2011. The warning strike was completely legal. But, during the warning strike, the Head of the Imereti Regional Police and the Head of the Imereti Branch of the Constitutional Police showed up and another policeman in plainclothes filmed everything that was happening outside in front of the main gate of the plant, including all of the protestors.

Again, the workers sent a letter to the management, which went unanswered. On September 9 the GTUC President went out there, ran a press conference, telling the management that all the workers wanted was to have their elected officials re-instated and to begin negotiations.  Finally, a real strike began on September  13, 2011. Again, this strike was legal and met the requirements of Georgian legislation. .About 90% of the Georgian workers in the plant joined the strike.  Two of the strikers went on a hunger strike ,Mr. Gocha Darjania, and Mr. Malkhazi Gogiava. They were joined by two others, Mr Kakha Tsertsvadze, and Mr. Yuza Kakhdize.
There were police cars constantly in front of the plant gate.

On 15 September, at around 9:15p.m. without warning a car bearing the Governor of Imereti, Mr. Lasha Makatsaria, followed by fifty police vehicles suddenly showed up. The governor's car was allowed into the plant. Then, after a few minutes, the police jumped out of their cars and descended on around 120 strikers, who were still milling about the hunger strikers. The hunger strikers were immediately taken into custody, another eight activists were also picked up. Others were also picked up as they ran away and from 35 to 40 have been taken into custody.
The GTUC has been trying to reach the Georgian Minister of Labor, who refuses to pick up the phone.

2) 3:00a.m., Friday, Sept 16, all of the workers arrested on Sept 15 in the evening have been released, BUT the plant management and the police have been calling everyone on the night shift, telling them to come to work or they would be arrested. The plant is back in operation.

3) 10:25a.m. Friday Sept 16:

There were confirmations that night shift workers had been called by the plant management and told to come to work or face the consequences. In some cases, the management went to the homes of the night shift workers with police and the workers were told to either go with them or be arrested. Many workers were brought by the police to work. One of those workers, a Mr David Vachadze, reported to the trade union that after he had received the phone call from the management and went to work, he was told by a supervisor that if he had not come to work, the police would have gone to his home and taken him to work.

One of the hunger strikers, Mr. Malkhaz Gogiava, reported that during the detention and interrogation by the police, although the police did not beat them, the police lectured them that they should not be doing what they were doing, that what they were doing was wrong, that they should not be speaking with workers, who wanted to go to work, and they should stop trying to persuade those workers from joining the strike.

Then, the police handed them all letters for them to sign. The letters said that they (workers) would not strike any more, that they would not participate in any protest or demonstrations and that they would go back to work (although almost half of them had been fired for more than two weeks). They were all forced to sign these letters.

It should be mentioned that none of the governmental officials has made any comment about this unlawful act by the police. The vice-mayor of Kutaisi Irakli Jiqia commented only: ‘’I confirm that some workers have been dismissed by the administration due to their disciplinary wrongdoings. Any investor will have maximum assistance by the government of Georgia, because our priority is clear to create more jobs for local workforce’’- he stated. We shall assume that this is an official comment of the government of Georgia that attempts to mislead the public once again and blame workers for exercising their constitutional rights.