From the very start it started challenging management to solve issues which had been too long ignored: like working condition in the paintshop, wages falling behind the inflation, misstreatment of employees by management. No wonder the union and its activists were immediately targeted for attacks and reprisals. Thus on November 17 Ilsijar was fired for absenteesm, even though she was on a sick leave.

The company hoped that Ilsirar (mother of two children) would give up fighting against an international giant and go look for a job somewhere else. Before this has always worked: inconvenient people were sacked and forgotten. But not this time: it was no longer a personal issue, but a matter of workers' struggle and solidarity. This made all the difference.

Within a week from the awkward dismissal GM headquarters in Moscow, the plant in Togliatti and several GM dealers in Russian big cities were picketed by workers their unions and sympathising activists protesting the anty-union attacks of GM-AvtoVAZ and demanding reinstatement of Ilsijar. At the same time office faxes, telephones and management' e-mails and mobiles got bombarded by messages from all parts of Russia with same demand.

Aware of its weak position in court (the sacking was done very hasty and with severe violations) Gm-AvtoVAZ did everything to put the reinstatement off as much as they could help it. However even the russian court can not last forever and it can not condone evident breaking of law too! Thus the long awaited reinstatement came about two days ago.

Ilsirar returned to her workplace to continue working and defending workers' rights and dignity. But first she had to prove by her own example that it was possible. It was possible not only thanks to her courage and determination but also because many people across the country and abroad took her offence personally and supported her6 by calls, collecting money, paying union dues which paid for lawyer, sendinfg letters and inquiries, standing in pickets even in freasing Russian cold.

The workers welcomed her back, many were happy to see her as a sign of hope that justice is possible even in their workplace.

In solidarity,

Andrei Liapin

Chairman of independent Workers' Union of GM-AVTOVAZ