On November 13, 1998, ten employees of the joint-stock company “Saktransproekti” began a hunger strike, later joined by five more colleagues.

In 1993, like many other state organizations, “Saktransproekti” went through privatization. The Ministry of State Property Management allocated 8% of shares to employees at a preferential price and 4% free of charge. In addition, by decree of the head of state, the company received the right to directly purchase a 50.23% stake. A total of 407 employee-shareholders began making payments, and some had already paid in full when, in 1995, a new government decree suspended the privatization process. In 1998, a new decree restarted it.

According to the Ministry of State Property, the company’s office building would be transferred into employees’ ownership within two months. However, only a week after this promise, the ministry secretly announced a commercial tender. On July 8, 1998, the tender was held with only one participant — TbilComBank. Its subsidiary, AM Financial Group, acquired 75% of “Saktransproekti’s” shares for USD 200,300. Employees only found out about this on July 12.

Angered by the secret privatization, the staff appealed to President Eduard Shevardnadze, demanding that the tender results be annulled and that they be allowed to continue purchasing shares under the original arrangement. They argued that only “Saktransproekti” had the expertise to prepare large-scale infrastructure projects such as the Silk Road, TRACECA (Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia), and other international transport initiatives heavily discussed at the time.

To draw public attention to the issue, they launched a protest, but for four days it went largely ignored. When the hunger strike began on November 13, representatives of “Saktransproekti” and TbilComBank met with State Property Minister Mikheil Ukleba. A joint commission was created to investigate the legality of the tender.

The hunger strikers waited for an answer until November 25, but press reports suggested they had little hope the case would be resolved in their favor. The media did not provide further details on how the hunger strike ultimately ended.