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Russia's Avtovaz workers protest mass layoffs
2009-10-17
TOLYATTI, Russia (AFP) - Hundreds on Saturday took to the streets of Tolyatti, home to Russia's largest carmaker Avtovaz, to protest mass layoffs at the ailing manufacturer and demand that its management steps down. Saturday's officially sanctioned demonstration is the latest in a series of protests to shake the bleak company town of 700,000 people on the Volga River in central Russia and comes as the struggling carmaker is gearing up to lay off thousands. "A social catastrophe will happen in the city if the plant is shut down," Alexander Rasskazov, an Avtovaz worker, said at the protest. At the end of the two-hour demonstration organized by the carmaker's independent trade union Yedinstvo (Unity), the protesters adopted a resolution calling for the resignation of the company's management as well as a pay hike. The demonstrators carried red flags and placards with slogans such as "No to Avtovaz bankruptcy" and "Those who will shut down Avtovaz will not be loved by us." Trade unionists put the turnout at 1,500 people, while police told reporters about 700 people showed up. Russia's state-controlled television largely ignored the demonstration. While officials have said the country's economy is slowly recovering from the crisis, the government remains on tenterhooks as mass layoffs and protests could yet spill into wider social unrest. Tolyatti is one potential flashpoint, where life has revolved around Avtovaz for the past 40 years. Analysts have said Avtovaz, with its bloated workforce, focus on manual labour and equipment dating back to the 1970s, is dying a slow death, despite all attempts by the government to shield it from foreign competition. In 2005, the Kremlin handed officials at state arms trader Rosoboronexport led by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's powerful ally Sergei Chemezov, the task of turning the carmaker around. When it became clear the maker of the Communist-era staple Lada car would not make it on its own, the state sold a quarter of the company for over a billion dollars to France's Renault in 2007. Last month, Avtovaz announced it would shed 27,600 jobs from its workforce of over 100,000 in a bid to cope with the slumping demand caused by the economic crisis. The protesters said the crisis had hit them hard. "We don't know how to go on living like that," said Nadezhda Ulyanova, whose Avtovaz worker husband has seen his pay-check cut to 4,000 rubles (140 dollars) from 25,000 rubles (852 dollars). The carmaker's workers now receive an average of 6,000 rubles (204 dollars) per month. A recent internal government memo authored by deputy industry and trade minister Andrei Dementyev, said that current output levels were such that the workforce should stand at only 55,000, meaning job cuts of almost 50,000 should be required. An Avtovaz spokesman Alexander Shmygov, who saw a copy of the memo, said the carmaker wouldn't comment on Dementyev's letter. In early October, Putin warned Renault its 25 percent stake could be diluted unless the French auto giant and its ally Nissan provided help for the crisis-ridden firm. On Friday, Avtovaz officials said that the carmaker together with Renault and Nissan planned to invest 240 million euros in several new models over the next few years.
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