6 on hunger strike at Batumi Port protest organisational restructure
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Six people have gone on a hunger strike in Georgia’s western seaside town of Batumi opposing a reorganisation of employee structure at Batumi Port.
Two of them have been taken to hospital due to health-related issues today.
A delegation from Astana, Kazakhstan has arrived in Batumi to settle the recent confrontation between the local port administration and the workers demanding the resignation of Director General Daniar Mukhamed Rakhim.
Accusing the port administration of trying to conduct a "secret organisation” of the existing employee structure, dozens of workers began a hunger strike at Batumi Port on April 1.
Batumi Port has been managed by the Batumi Oil Terminal owned by the KazTransOil, which is the daughter company of the national Kazakh KazMunaiGas company since 2008.
In a special statement concerning the case, Rakhim said the port administration has ceased all attempts to reorganise the employee structure.
Encouraging the protesters to stop the strike, the head of the government of Adjara Zurab Pataradze said he has received firm confirmation from Kazakhstan that no one will be dismissed from their jobs.
Pataradze said the local government is interested in both protecting the rights of the workers and the investor as the port has not been properly functioning these days due to the strike.
From now on, students of Batumi State Maritime Academy, along with theoretical knowledge, will have the opportunity to receive practical experience as well. For the first time in the 90-year history of Georgia’s only maritime university, it has its own training vessel.
As part of the bilateral Georgian-French defence cooperation, Guepratte, a multi-mission frigate of the French Navy will make a stopover in the Black Sea coastal resort of Batumi in Georgia from November 22-25.
The flagship of NATO’s naval forces REGELE FERDINAND and another NATO vessel under the Turkish flag entered Georgia’s coastal city of Batumi today.
French National Navy ship, Premier-Maitre L’Her, has arrived in Georgia’s coastal city Batumi to enhance the naval partnership between Georgia and France.
The employees of Batumi Port have ended their hunger strike as the Director General of the company, Daniar Mukhamed Rakhim, resigned yesterday. Six people had gone on hunger strike in Batumi opposing the reorganisation of the employee structure at Batumi Port and demanded Rakhim’s resignation.