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Kutaisi Mayor Meets UNM members

Netgazeti reports that members of Kutaisi City Council factions United National Movement (UNM) and majority met with new mayor of Kutaisi, Dimitri Kopaliani. The meeting was closed to the media.

However, Kopaliani said “it was a friendly meeting.”

Having met with other faction members last week, Kopaliani said he simply found it necessary to meet with MPs. “It was an introductory meeting,” he said.

Kopaliani will officially begin his mayoral duties from Monday, thus he was interested to share the views of different sides. He said it was a general conversation about Kutaisi.

UNM member, Giorgi Ukleba said the sides discussed the status of the city and the possible projects. “I think it was a fruitful meeting… Kutaisi should preserve its status as the second capital and Parliament should remain here,” he said.

Uikleba said that this way, the sides have joint position adding that the projects that had started during the UNM governance should be continued. “We will still have a lot of meetings and our positions will come closer,” Ukleba stated.

Kutaisi City Council selected Kopaliani as Kutaisi Mayor upon the agreement of the Council Chairman Tamaz Margvelashvili on June 5.



Georgian Trade Unions: business interest vs. employees

Liberali reports that Georgian trade unions in communication, energy, oil and gas, service and the banking sector have expressed concern over the proposed changes to the labor code. The trade unions for Electric System, Energo Pro Georgia, Engurhess, Batumi Oil Terminal, Kulevi Terminal, Silknet, Georgian Post, Sak Tele Radio Center, Telasi and Tbilisi Water Provision, released a statement on behalf of their members encouraging the Georgian Parliament and government to return to the initial version of the code.

“If Parliament accepts the code offered by the business circles with its third reading, there will be no sense in talking about the European standards of the Labour Code. Do not force us take extreme measures of protest. We encourage the Georgian Dream to start fulfilling their election promises,” suggests the statement of Trade Unions.