Global recession forced Lada’s hometown to its knees

Factory workers fear the entire city will die

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By Anneli Ahonen
     
      The doors swing open. A stream of engineers, sheet metal workers, and welders flow out of the car factory rushing towards the waiting buses.
      But not for long.
      Last week the Avtovaz factory, producing Lada cars in the city of Tolyatti [also written "Togliatti"] by the River Volga, announced that it would lay off a quarter of its workforce.
      More than 27,000 factory workers - equal to the population of a small town - will be left without work.
      “I am afraid I will be fired”, says platemetal worker Vladimir Brailjan, while sipping from a bottle of beer on a windy parking lot.
      “I don’t know what lies ahead. I get the feeling that someone somewhere wants to kill the factory.”
     
Uncertainty about the future dominates the sentiments among the Tolyatti residents. Almost every city-dweller’s subsistence is one way or another tied to the factory, which employs a staggering 102,000 people.
      The signs of recession are already visible. At the weekends the city’s central square becomes host to a market, where the stall spots are handed out free of charge by the city. Cheap sausage, bread, macaroni, and vodka continue to sell.
     
But the Ladas pile up in the factory depot.
      The new Lada Prioras, Kalinas advertised on the Russian television by the Finnish actor Ville Haapasalo, and the classic box-shaped ones reminiscent of Fiat’s 1970s models are being hauled straight to the factory’s car park, which looks frighteningly full.
      In all, approximately 80,000-90,000 cars remain unsold.
     
“Needlessly”, reckons director Pjotr Zolotarjov of the independent trade union Jedinstvo.
      “It is wrong to say that there is no demand for Ladas. People in Russia want to buy Ladas, but they are not being offered to the buyers”, Zolotarjov insists.
      “The car dealers do not get loans from banks to buy the cars from the factory.”
      In Zolotarjov’s opinion the factory directors made a huge mistake in the 1990s, when instead of instigating fundamental renewals they allowed production to continue in the ageing plant while putting enormous profits into their pockets.
      Without any evidence, Zolotarjov does not believe the mass lay-offs are being carried out as the very last resort.
      “The dismissed workers could have been transferred to make, say, spare parts.”
     
Jedinstvo was not allowed at the negotiating table when the lay-offs were discussed.
      Only around a thousand workers belong to the union. About half of the factory’s workforce belongs to the old labour union, which in an old Soviet Union style works in close cooperation with the Avtovaz directors.
      “Above all Moscow is afraid of social unrest, but also us Jedinstvo members”, Zolotarjov says.
      According to the factory workers, the management has threatened that those workers who take part in any demonstrations will be the first ones to get the order of the boot.
     
One of the workers risking the future of his job is electrician Aleksei Larin, who has toiled at the factory since 1996. He says it like it is:
      ”There is a panic mood in the factory.”
      For the entire month of August, the Lada factory remained shut, and now everyone works shortened hours.
      Larin’s salary fell from 20,000 roubles (EUR 460) to 6,700 roubles (EUR 150).
      And that should be enough to feed him, his wife, and their two children, plus cover the EUR 160 monthly instalment on their housing loan.
     
Larin is well aware of who is to blame.
      ”This is the government’s fault. The Russian State has never looked after its people”, Larin says while sitting on his sofa.
      ”The Tolyatti residents are of the opinion that the Moscow bigwigs came and stole the factory’s funds. They want to destroy the entire plant. But all the information is based on rumours. We are kept in a news vacuum.”
      Larin is referring to the Russian state corporation Rostekhnologii, which owns a quarter of the factory and the director of which Sergei Tšemezov is also the chairman of the board at Avtovaz.
     
Larin puts on his leather jacket to go the night shift. He rides a bus on the Tolyatti streets lined with Ladas.
      He cannot afford a car of his own.
      In any case Larin is proud of Lada.
      “It is the best vehicle for the Russian roads. The spare parts are cheap and easy to get”, he says.
      “The Russian people want a car that they can be proud of. Lada could be that car if it was developed. But how can anyone respect Lada, when even the factory directors drive imported vehicles?”
      Larin enters into the factory through Gate No.5 and closes the door behind him.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 1.10.2009


Links:
  Tolyatti (Wikipedia)
  AvtoVAZ, the manufacturer of Lada cars (Wikipedia)
  Lada (Wikipedia)

ANNELI AHONEN / Helsingin Sanomat