MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th August, 2020) Employees of three large factories in Belarus have joined a country-wide walkout over the country's August 9 presidential election and subsequent violent crackdown on protesters, non-state Belarusian news outlets reported on Friday.
Staff at the Belarusian Steel Works (BMZ), a major company in the southern Gomel region that employs over 12,000 people in the steel industry, and Minsk Electrotechnical Plant, with over 3,000 people, refuse to return to their workplaces and call on other factories to join the industrial action, the tut.by media outlet reported, providing footage of� hundreds of workers marching and calling on incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko to step down.�
Employees of Minsk Motor Plant, the largest motor engine producer in the country, also joined the walkout, the Next Live Telegram channel reported.
People have been on the streets in Belarus since Sunday evening, when the election results showed Lukashenko secure his sixth term with over 80 percent of the vote. Calls for the country-wide strike were voiced after the demonstrations have been harshly suppressed by the security forces. Thousands of people were arrested, including many foreign journalists. The Interior Ministry started to release the detainees en masse on Friday morning.
