[R-P] Toma de fábrica en Ucrania

Abulafia abulafia en arnet.com.ar
Mar Feb 17 02:15:22 MST 2009 

volver, con la frente machita....[.]
que veinte años (de perestrika) no es nada.....
La fuerza que da la unión termina generando notalgias cuando te abandona el 
triunfalismo soberbio y egoista.

Outa



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nestor Gorojovsky" <nmgoro en gmail.com>
To: <abulafia en arnet.com.ar>
Cc: "Lucha de masas para recuperar la Argentina" 
<reconquista-popular en lists.econ.utah.edu>
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2009 7:38 PM
Subject: [R-P] Toma de fábrica en Ucrania


CITANDO LA FUENTE,EL MATERIAL DE ESTA LISTA ES DE LIBRE REPRODUCCIÓN


[Una golondrina ni por casualidad hace el verano. Pero lo que es seguro
es que las golondrinas no vienen con el invierno.]

-------- Mensaje original --------
Fecha: domingo, 15 Feb 2009 20:28:24 -0500

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

Trabajadores ucranianos ocupan fábrica de maquinaria agrícola

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

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

Los trabajadores de una fábrica de ingeniería ucraniana la han ocupado
exigiendo el pago de sueldos caídos, la nacionalización de la fábrica, y
la producción de maquinaria socialmente útil.

[...]

Durante uno de los encuentros previos, la directora suplente, Sra.
Pugacheva, informó a los trabajadores que los dueños no pensaban salvar
la fábrica. "¿Porqué se aferran tanto a esta fábrica?", preguntó.

[...]

El presidente del concejo de trabajadores ha emitido un llamado por
diseminar la lucha, y para que los trabajadores de otras plantas, en
toda Ucrania, se brinden mutua solidaridad y apoyo. Según los
trabajadores, se propone emitir llamamientos similares a los
trabajadores de la Fábrica de Autobuses de Lviv y de otras fábricas.

Original en inglés:

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 en gmail.com

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

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