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Article

21 Mar 2023

Author:
Shota Kincha, OC Media

Georgia: Mineral water company agrees to workers' demand for wage increase after five-week strike

Georgian mineral water company agrees to striking workers’ demands 21 March 2023

A five-week strike by employees of Georgia’s Sairme Mineral Waters company has ended after the company agreed to their key demands. 

Both Sairme and Labor, a union of agriculture, trade, and industrial workers that represented 32 Sairme employees, have confirmed that they reached an agreement on 20 March that put an end to the 36-day strike...

According to Labor, which belongs to the larger Georgian Trade Union Confederation (GTUC), collective bargaining resulted in a 22.5% raise in the workers’ salaries, with night shift pay increasing by 34%. Pay for overtime work and shifts during public holidays will increase by 25%, the union reported...

Throughout the strike, Sairme did not respond to OC Media’s repeated requests to comment. However, the company publicly confirmed last night that the dispute had been resolved and that striking employees would resume work on 22 March...

The striking workers claimed safety problems included a lift falling down its shaft and workers receiving electric shocks...

Throughout the 36 days of the strike, the company repeatedly used police force to unblock the entrance to the factory for vehicles. 

GTUC told OC Media that police detained two striking workers, who later received warnings from the local court after spending a night in a detention facility. However, the union noted that Sairme had committed to retract all their appeals to the police against their employees...