The Labour Centre has called a protest rally for today at 18:00 in Riga Feraios Square. It has also declared a 24-hour strike for tomorrow, Tuesday, with a strike rally scheduled for 11:00 at the same location.

In its statement, the Labour Centre says the mobilisations are aimed at condemning what it describes as an employer’s crime that has already cost four workers’ lives, while one worker remains missing. It stresses that unions had repeatedly warned in the past about the need for essential health and safety measures at workplaces in the region, including at this specific company — warnings that, it says, were ignored.

According to the Labour Centre, employers treat protective measures as a cost. The result, it argues, is a steady rise in workplace accidents, leaving workers dead or disabled in the course of trying to earn a living.

Calling on workers and local residents to join the strike and rallies en masse, the Labour Centre is demanding a full investigation into the causes of the tragedy, the attribution of responsibility, and substantive measures to ensure health and safety at work. ‘Workers are not expendable,’ it says, insisting that the most basic right is to return home alive and unharmed.

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