“We have Families to Maintain”: Workers Stood up to Protect TOAZ

On July 23, the first open trade union meeting was held at the plant. The fate of the Togliattiazotazot plant was the only one issue on the agenda. This topic concerns everyone. No wonder the assembly hall gathered not only the workers of TOAZ, but also the veterans of production, representatives of the city and regional authorities, deputies of different levels, ecologists, and concerned Togliattiazot citizens.

What Threatens the Largest Enterprise of the Region?

On July 23, the first open trade union meeting was held at the plant. The fate of the Togliattiazotazot plant was the only one issue on the agenda. This topic concerns everyone. No wonder the assembly hall gathered not only the workers of TOAZ, but also the veterans of production, representatives of the city and regional authorities, deputies of different levels, ecologists, and concerned Togliattiazot citizens.

15 Years of Confrontation

What did thousands of workers and the public come together for? It is for the sake of the largest chemical plant in the Samara Region, and preservation of jobs.

“The plant is in a difficult situation now. For the last 15 years and more, the enterprise has been working under constant pressure and corporate raids,” said Dmitry Mezheedov, General Director of Togliattiazotazot Corporation. “A real information war is being waged against TOAZ at the instigation of minority shareholders. All these actions are aimed at the takeover of the large Russian plant in order to gain full control over its profits.

“Minority shareholders want to solve their financial problems at the expense of our company. This is the main risk for all of us. In this case, all investment programmes aimed at increasing the productivity and efficiency of our enterprise, as well as social programmes, will most probably be reduced. Our goal is to develop TOAZ, improve product quality, working conditions, and industrial safety. This is why we are uniting today,” Mezheedov said.

A Coveted Prize

At the meeting, a lot was said about the importance of TOAZ for the city, the region, and the country.

“The company is the largest taxpayer in the Samara region – it brings up to five billion a year to the public purse. This is a significant sum for Togliattiazot, for the region,” said Mikhail Maryakhin, Deputy of the Samara Province Duma.

It is clear that the company is a coveted prize for unscrupulous entrepreneurs. The production capacity is up to 3.5 million tons of ammonia and 900 thousand tons of urea. It is 10% of the global volume.

“In 2005, we already defended the plant from a group of armed SWAT men in flak jackets,” said Viktor Kazachkov, Deputy Director General of TOAZ and Togliattiazot Duma Deputy. ”And only the joined workforce, the workers from the nearby workshops prevented an illegal takeover. Now, I call on you all to stand up for your enterprise again.”

Both Youth and Veterans

True, TOAZ is a large industrial facility. But first of all, it is people, thousands of employees and their families. The meeting was attended by delegates from each of the plant’s structural units. People want to have a quiet and stable job. But now their daily routine is constant checks, criminal cases, and courts. “We are afraid that we won't have anything to feed our children,” the workers said. Therefore, they came to the meeting not for the sake of appearance, but to defend their future and the future of their children.

“I’ve been working at the factory since student times, my whole family works here. It is disturbing to read unpleasant words about Togliattiazotazot in some media. We see that those words are far from true! We are paid our salaries on time, and they are higher than the average in the city. We have a full social package. We want to work without being afraid of being kicked out,” said senior foreman Ekaterina Shmeleva, a representative of the younger generation of plant employees.

Veterans also had their say. Vladimir Barabanschikov has worked for Togliattiazotazot for 38 years. He took part in the construction works, in the launching of the enterprise.

“Over the 40 years of existence of the enterprise, about 25 thousand people have worked at it!” said the veteran. “We all keep in touch with the plant, many of us have children and grandchildren working here. The enterprise develops, more attention is given to social sphere. A community centre and a health resort have been opened. We, veterans, enjoy all the benefits available to the employees. I recently had a stay at the Nadezhda health resort, paid 6 thousand rubles for 21 days. And now we are under the threat of losing it all. We survived the 1990s, defended the plant in the early 2000s, and we will defend it now.”

No Giving Up

Participants of the Open Trade Union Meeting of TOAZ intend to consistently work to make sure that federal and regional authorities hear the voice of the plant workers and pay attention to the actions of minority shareholders of the plant they believe to be unscrupulous, and that the law enforcement agencies act strictly within the law. Elena Konovalova, who had been working at the plant for more than a quarter of a century, read out the resolution elaborated at the meeting.

“We, the TOAZ labour team, unanimously oppose the hostile forces that undermine the work of Russia’s largest chemical enterprise,” the resolution says. Every employee of the enterprise is ready to sign under these words.

“The plant brings up not only professionals, but also personalities in us. And these personalities form the group of people who are ready to defend their plant today,” believes Elena Konovalova.

SOURCE KP.RU

TOAZ's employees are ready to stand up for the protection of the plant’s future.

Dmitry Mezheedov: “The plant in now in a difficult situation.”

Viktor Kazachkov reminded how the employees defended the plant in 2005.

https://www.samara.kp.ru/daily/27007.4/4068620/

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