The Ukraine Solidarity Network (US) calls for the immediate release of Grigoriy Osovyi, the President of the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine (FPU) and a member of the Executive Committee of the European Trade Union Confederation. He also heads the Joint Representative Body of the Representative All-Ukrainian Trade Union Associations in tripartite negotiations with Ukraine’s government and its business sector.
Osovyi was detained and placed under house arrest on April 9 in Lutsk, where he had arrived to participate in a regional trade union conference. The reason for the detention is an allegedly unlawful decision to sell trade union property ten years ago.
The Ukrainian state considers union property inherited from the Soviet period to be publicly owned. However, under current law and practice, the FPU and Ukrproftur, a private joint-stock company set up by the FPU and the Social Insurance Fund upon Ukraine’s independence, have operated hotels, recreation centers, and other tourism services. Transactions involving these properties have been the subject of previous prosecutions. In 2023, Serhiy Strilets, the director of Ukrproftur, was found not guilty in a case similar to Osoviyi’s. FPU Vice-President Volodymyr Sayenko was recently released without charge after three years of pre-trial detention in a similar case.
The Osovyi case comes against the background of a new draft Labor Code of Ukraine (Draft Bill 6420) in the Verkhovna Rada (parliament), which proposes to seize the property of trade unions. The bill’s proposed seizure of trade union property is in violation of Ukraine’s international obligation to trade unions rights under International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions. These require member states to guarantee “the right to adequate protection of trade union property as one of those civil liberties which are essential for the normal exercise of trade union rights.” The bill is also in violation of labor law standards required for accession to the European Union (EU).
The Ukraine Solidarity Network (US) continues to condemn Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and support Ukraine’s war of resistance, its right to determine the means and objectives of its own struggle, and its right to obtain the weapons it needs from any available source. Weakening Ukraine’s labor organizations only weakens the defense of Ukraine. Working people, who are bearing the brunt of resistance to Russia’s brutal invasion, are fighting for labor, social, and democratic rights that are being crushed in the Russian-occupied territories.
The Ukraine Solidarity Network (US) joins with the European Trade Union Confederation and the European Network In Solidarity with Ukraine (ENSU) to demand that the Ukrainian government stops its threats to FPU leaders and assets and develop a program in line with ILO and EU obligations to support genuine social dialogue, trade union rights, and the protection of trade union property. We demand that the charges against Grigoriy Osovyi be dropped and the restrictions of house arrest be lifted.