Workers At One Of Russia's Largest Shipyards Rioted
- 16.11.2023, 15:16
The strike began with the seizure of the building of administration.
Employees at the Vyborg Shipyard JSC in Russia, which builds icebreakers, freezing trawlers and offshore drilling platforms, went on strike after cutting wages.
In a video published on November 15 in the Vyborg VKontakte [Russian social media platform - Ed.] community, people in the company’s helmets and uniforms approached the building of administration and went inside.
As 47news.ru writes, they demanded that management explain why their wages were cut. In response, the leadership asked protesters to keep working. They promised protesters to examine the protocol drawn up following the strike and schedule a separate meeting to answer all the questions. The chief production officer took the protocol from the workers.
The United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), the Vyborg Shipyard is its member company, stated that the company continues to implement a comprehensive program to “increase the efficiency of production activities.” “The goal of the program is, first of all, to reduce time and increase the number of products produced,” the USC representatives emphasized.
According to them, the average salary at the Vyborg Shipyard was 61.800 Russian rubles in 2021, 73.100 in 2022, and 78.500 in 2023. At the same time, the USC clarified that wages depend “on the degree of fulfillment of the production plan.” “For this purpose, regular meetings are held with the workers to enrich the basis for planning further work aimed at increasing profitability,” USC representative said.
The Vyborg Shipyard Press Service refused to comment on the salary reductions, but the problem arose after the state-owned stake in the USC was transferred to the state-owned VTB Bank. At a meeting with the head of the bank, Andrei Kostin, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that the state corporation, which has been unprofitable for two years in a row, has “many problems”.
“There are issues that require special attention, including from the bank’s specialists. This is connected with settlements, with the financial recovery of the company,” Putin said. The head of VTB Bank assured the president that all of USC’s problems are “resolvable”.
“We know this organization well, from the very beginning of its creation. We work closely with the corporation and the enterprises that are part of the corporation, so we know the problems, especially funding issues,” Kostin noted.
Created in 2007, The USC is 100% owned by the state and includes 50 design bureaus, shipbuilding and ship repair plants, as well as research centers in 15 regions of the Russian Federation.
The USC itself has been under US sanctions since 2014, which were expanded after the start of the war in Ukraine: 28 affiliated companies of the state-owned corporation, as well as 8 members of its board of directors, were sanctioned. The corporation suffered a loss of 20 billion rubles in 2022.