Kharkov, February 10th. About 200 workers have blocked one of the entrances to the Modular equipment factory. Since August, this branch of “Malyshev’s name Factory” have worked basically for nothing. Before the New Year, the workers were paid 5-10% of their wages, but starting January the workers stopped getting even this meagre pay. The workers have left their posts to loudly demand the payment of the money they have earned. The worker Nikolaj Bulba sais “They gave us 50 hryvnas [about $6.4 US] at the start of January. How can we survive with this money? There is a lot of work, a lot of orders, but no pay!”
A representative of the General director A. Podgornyj, came out to the protestors and demanded them to “return to work and not to undermine their delivery schedule”. The workers replied that they will go back to work only after they “get at least part of their money”. Engineer Anna Aksenova said “We are worse than cattle to them. Nobody is afraid of us, nobody takes us into account in any plan. If they don’t give us money – we will continue to strike tomorrow. We’ll go and block the main entrance”.
The workers say that the strike started in one shop, and when the other shops have learned of this, they have joined their striking comrades. Some of the worker’s demands were payment on the outstanding wages and the payments of the enterprise debts to the Pension fund.
The strike continued the next day. On February 11th, the workers came to the factory, but refused to work. Instead, they have gathered at an entrance to the factory. The rats from the trade union tried to persuade them to stop the strike and return to work, claiming that the administration promised to pay each of them 150 hryvnas [approximately $19.19 US]. The heads of the shops ran out to the strikers to threaten them. Unlike their workers, they are doing well – unlike the regular workers, they get their wages without problems, and thus support the director. Since threats and arguments didn’t help, the administration promised to form a reconciliatory commission on labour disputes and to pay off its current debts to workers. However, the workers don’t have much trust in the administration and are prepared to continue the strike.
Written by Andrei, city of Kharkov