On June 18, 1991, a meeting of all large industrial and transport labor collectives located in the “Mayak” was held at a shoe factory in Sukhumi. The participants of the meeting protested the decision of the Chairman of the Supreme Council of Abkhazia, Vladislav Ardzinba, to sign a union treaty that contradicted the constitutions of the USSR, Georgia, and Abkhazia.

The workers believed that the leaders of Abkhazia did not have the right to speak on behalf of the majority of the Abkhazian population, since 62 percent of the voters of the autonomous republic took part in the referendum of March 31, 1991, and the majority voted for Georgia’s independence.

The workers developed an appeal to Gorbachev and Ardzinba. They also announced that they would declare civil disobedience if the union treaty were signed.