Trade unions in Belarus are legally independent under International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions since 1956.
[1] In the early twenty-first century, Belarusian trade unions were subject to harassment and intimidation from government authorities.
The ICTU judged the problems to have been insufficiently resolved, commenting on police raids in 2017 against three people active in independent Belarusian trade unions.
[4] The online activities of the working group, founded by Marina Vorobei (Russian: Марина Воробей), aim to provide Belarusians interested in creating trade union locals within the existing Belarusian legal framework with information, with help in contacting others with similar interests in creating locals, and with contacts to existing trade unions.
[2] At least three workers of Byelorussian Steel Works (BMZ) were fired in early 2021 after trying to organize local branch of Belarusian Independent Trade Union (BNP).