[lbo-talk] Factory occupation in Ukraine

Socialist cwicanada at gmail.com
Sun Feb 15 17:29:23 PST 2009


http://red-news.livejournal.com/1462.html

Ukrainian workers occupy a farming machinery plant<http://red-news.livejournal.com/1462.html>

- Feb. 8th, 2009 at 11:23 AM

Republished from: The commune<http://thecommune.wordpress.com/2009/02/03/workers-occupy-engineering-plant-in-ukraine/#more-1876>

Workers have occupied an engineering plant in Ukraine demanding payment of owed wages, nationalisation of the plant, and production of socially useful machinery. Today at 9.30am more than 300 workers occupied the administrative building of Kherson Engineering Plant. The workers are demanding payment of wages, nationalization of the plant without compensation to its owner and have declared their intention to occupy the building until their demands are fulfilled in full.

Factory security did not offer much resistance, and no workers were hurt. A council of workers elected the previous day is in charge of the building.

On 2 February, the 300 workers at the plant started protest action against non-payment of wages since September 2008 and actual destruction of the plant by its owners. During one of the previous meetings with the workers Ms. Pugacheva, the alternate director, said that the owners were not going to save the plant. "Why do you stick to this plant so much?", she asked. The workers held a meeting near the entrance and elected 5 representatives, including a chair, Aleksey Nimchinov.

[image: ukraine-occupation]

Reports are that the council is meeting in the former office of a technical director. The chair of the workers council, has called for the struggle to spread and for workers from other plants throughout Ukraine to display solidarity and support each other. In the near future, workers have said, he plans to address this call to workers of the Lviv Bus Plant and other factories.

The main demands of protesting workers are: - payment of wage arrears (near 4.5 million Ukrainian hryvnias); - nationalization of the plant without compensation to its owner; - the state-secured plant's production distribution – high-quality farm machinery

FAQ <http://red-news.livejournal.com/2080.html>

- Feb. 9th, 2009 at 9:21 PM

*What is the Kherson Petrovsky plant?* The Kherson Farm Machinery Plant was founded more than 120 years ago. It is Ukraine's largest factory producing farm machinery and the only one producing combine harvesters which are sold in Ukraine and Russia. During the 1990s it went through difficult times as it changed hands frequently after the privatization, there were no investments into the modernization of the equipment, workers' salaries were often held up for months.

*What happenned before the factory occupation?* In *2006*, a man hanged himself at this plant in protest against withheld wage. Only then were the back wages paid.

In the last months of *2007*, the plant got a new owner who was already running a farm machinery plant (producing disk tillers) in Belaya Tserkov (near Kyiv). The two plants were formally united, which allowed the owner to start dismantling the plant. At this point, the workers were already owed back wages by the previous owners. The previous owners didn't just leave debt though: the plant had 70 combine harvesters that were 90% ready when the new owner took over. Already since *March 2008*, wages were being paid irregularly. Then, since *September 2008*, salaries weren't paid at all. What was once a big plant, the backbone of Ukrainian agriculture, was now dying. In *October*, three-day week was introduced. In *November*, many younger people were cajoled into signing a voluntary leave, which doesn't entitle them to severance pay or even back wages owed by the company. This is why many of the remaining workers are older people who have spent most of their life at the plant. On *January 20*, the workers didn't find the plant's sign at the factory gate, and found out that the financial department has been moved out of the city. The crowd of workers rushed directly to the local government building. This was the beginning of the protest at the Kherson plant. On *February 2*, the workers spontaneously organized (the existing union had not been able to defend the workers' rights in the previous conflicts), elected a Workers' Council which published its demands to the owner and the government: payment of back wages, seizure of the owner's accounts, nationalization of the plant under worker control, and government-guaranteed orders of the factory's products.

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Feb. 9th, 2009 <http://red-news.livejournal.com/1722.html>

- 11:24 AM

[image: [info]] <http://shapinbaum.livejournal.com/profile>*shapinbaum*<http://shapinbaum.livejournal.com/>

reports <http://shapinbaum.livejournal.com/93209.html> that an independent union has been created at the Petrovsky plant in Kherson. There was previously a union at the plant, but it hasn't taken any actions to protect the workers in the last half-year when salaries weren't paid, and did not participate in the factory takeover. 250 workers participated in the meeting where the creation of the union was decided. Leonid Nemchonok has been elected the head of the union committee.

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Factory Occupation in Kherson<http://red-news.livejournal.com/1066.html>

- Feb. 8th, 2009 at 11:21 PM

In the years of the boom, Ukraine hasn't seen the development of a "new" union movement (opposed to the "old" passive unions) similar to that in Russia (where it has been spurred by creation of assembly plants by foreign auto makers). Now, Ukraine has been hit hard by the economic crisis, whereas the government is not trying to protect the unemployed and those losing jobs, but is increasing fees for everything from utilities to public transit even trying to introduce fees for visiting the cemetery (in Kyiv). For many years, even during the boom, factory owners would hold back wages for months, so they can invest it and earn that extra interest (a practice also common in post-Soviet Russia). In 2006, at a farm machinery plant in Kherson (a city of 300 thousand people and a birthplace of Trotsky: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kherson), a man hanged himself in protest against withheld wage. The back wages were paid then. Now, the owner owes half a year of wages to workers at that plant. Meanwhile, the owner is planning to close down the plant and sell everything including machinery. The harvester combines, the main products of the plant have already been removed by the owners. The management was trying to force the workers to quit the job themselves, renouncing not only severance pay, but also the back wages (more than US$ 0.5 million ). Having been lied to and neglected for years, the workers decided to act. First, on February 2, there was a protest in front of seat of regional government. Then, a Workers' Council was elected which decided to occupy the plant on the next day. This was done peacefully and soon the building was controlled by the 300 workers who share duty protecting the building. The workers are demanding back wages to be paid, the owners to be prosecuted, the plant to be nationalized under worker control, and the sales secured by the government. The harvesters are in demand in both Russia and Ukraine, but in the times of economic crisis it is logical that these workers are looking to government for help. The national government is not reacting to the events in any way. Local government has made proposals to the workers, including partial payback of the back wages from the regional budget and a suggestion to seek jobs at the shipbuilding plant. These are buyout tactics. The government completely ignored the workers' needs for many years, lied to them on many occasions, and there is no reason to trust it this time. The workers are going to stand the ground this time. They need your support. They are calling for pickets at the Ukrainian embassies and consulates.

Solidarity letters can be addressed to:

Workers of the Kherson Plant solydarity.ksmz at gmail.com

Initiative Group for the Creation of a Ukrainian Coordination Committee of Workers in Struggle rabochiy_komitet at googlegroups.com

Protest letters to the local government: vd-komp at oda.kherson.ua Boris Silenkov (head of regional government) the owner of the plant: alex at bcmaz.com.ua Alexander Oleynyk the managing director: boss at bcmaz.com.ua Igor Bazhenov

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A report from the Kherson plant occupied by the workers<http://red-news.livejournal.com/688.html>

- Feb. 8th, 2009 at 11:06 PM

Article by Andrei Manchuk [image: [info]]<http://kermanich.livejournal.com/profile> *kermanich* <http://kermanich.livejournal.com/>) Translation [image: [info]] <http://red-news.livejournal.com/profile>* red_news* <http://red-news.livejournal.com/> with help from [image: [info]]<http://sabotabby.livejournal.com/profile> *sabotabby* <http://sabotabby.livejournal.com/>. Originally published on February 5 at http://www.rabkor.ru/ (a Russian-language leftist e-zine) and at http://marx.org.ua/ (Ukrainian and Russian-language site of the Ukrainian Marxist Organization).</lj></lj></lj>



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