Three from "Kusheyakovskaya"

On Tuesday, August 6, three miners of the Novokuznetsk Kusheyakovskaya mine, after working a shift, refused to go to the surface. Just on the day when VIP excursionist Dmitry Medvedev was happily riding a train around Kuzbass.

Miner Andrey Sazykin (28 years old), electrician Vasily Gorbushkin (24 years old), miner Alexey Ponkratov (26 years old). They staged an underground strike, transmitting their four-point demands to the top. All requirements are purely economic, related to the wage structure and work schedule.

Perhaps, to people not connected with coal, the method of protest will seem strange and exotic. Let me explain that there is a big difference between a strike in the form of a refusal to go underground and a strike built on a refusal to rise from the ground. In the first case, this is a nuisance for the management, but not a big one. And in the second case there is a very significant problem. These are the strict requirements of the mine regulations and rules for conducting mining operations. The workers know this. They have been used in different mines of Kuzbass many times over the last quarter of a century, since Gorbachev’s perestroika.

Well, what - three? Three are easy to deal with. A whole regiment of people moved underground at Kusheyakovskaya - mine rescuers, law enforcement officers, representatives of the mine management (the mine is part of the Yuzhkuzbassugol Management Company and belongs to the EvrAZ holding). They dragged the rebels to the surface by force. Now they are figuring out how to punish them. Perhaps they will be fired from the company. That is, in the short term, the conflict is over, the mine continues normal operation. Even the media, which the day before yesterday attacked the extraordinary incident, have almost lost interest in it.

Below the cut is a transcript of an interesting television interview with two participants in the “rebellion.” The interview was conducted on August 8 by Novokuznetsk independent television NK-NV. If you delve into some details, not everything in this plot is simple.

Firstly, from the story of the “rebels” it becomes more clear why ordinary issues of labor relations are not resolved in a working manner, but require such extreme gestures. There is no one to decide. After all, as it turns out, they contacted the trade union and wrote collective letters to many high authorities. The letters had no effect, but the union obsequiously acted and continues to act as a “back-up dancer” for the owners. Owners can sometimes condescend to have a constructive conversation with workers if there is pressure from above from the leadership of a country or region (especially after an accident with casualties). Or they may not condescend, promising changes, but in reality leaving everything as before.

Secondly, it is clear that this is not a spontaneous act of three weirdos, as was initially thought. This was a prepared action in which a large number of miners were expected to participate. That is, people are, in principle, mature enough to defend their demands in such a decisive way. Only at the last moment did they give in and become afraid. But these three did not give up.

Thirdly, an analogy arises with the events at the Mezhdurechensk mine named after Shevyakov, with which in the summer of 1989 grandiose strikes began throughout the then USSR. It was mainly coal workers who went on strike, but workers from other industries also partly joined in. The scheme is the same. Shevyakovites, I remember, also wrote letters to authorities at various levels, tried to act through the trade union, and little by little threatened with protest actions. At first, their demands, as at Kusheyakovskaya, were purely economic (adjusted for the then Soviet reality, of course). The management sent replies, brushed them off, and nothing changed. The effect of the six-month efforts of the protesters was zero. As a result, it exploded in a big way. The mine stopped, and behind it, joining the protest, one after another other Kuzbass mines stopped in different cities.

Now, in my opinion, the situation is not so explosive. I believe that even if the Kusheyakov trio of rebels are fired from the mine, hardly anyone will dare to go on strike in their support. But moods are changing quickly. If Kuzbass does not miraculously get out of the coal and metal sales crisis in the next six months, the level of social tension will undoubtedly increase. And then any similar incident can generate a very significant resonance. First call...

Here is a five-minute NK-TV story.
(True, Medvedev is called the president, the surname of one of the workers is distorted. In addition, the interview participants, as it turned out, are not entirely satisfied with the editing tricks done in the plot. But this does not change the essence of the conversation, so we will not cling to the details.)

CORR. Just the day before yesterday, President Medvedev was here, who was told about an 8-hour working day. About the need for some specific economic requirements... The miners talked about them. That is, is it possible to connect Medvedev’s arrival with your action?

Andrey SAZYKIN. No, we did not want to link the strike either to Miner’s Day, or to Medvedev’s arrival, or to anything. That is, it was simply our protest. Because there is so much injustice towards workers. When, against the backdrop of a non-functioning trade union and the fact that the employer is taking from ordinary workers the crumbs that they have left... That is, in this way we decided to have our say, to stay underground...

CORR. Why, in your opinion, did not, say, your other colleagues support you?

SAZYKIN. Before... Well, you can say, in the month when I raised this issue underground and at the site, more than half of the first shift was going to support us. And people from the shift. As a result, people got scared and did not support us. Now, there are only three people left. And since measures were also taken by the director, and people were not allowed into the mine at all... That is, well, no one could join us, purely physically.

Alexey PANKRATOV. If someone had a desire to... well, somehow support something, they physically could not do it. Well, the liquidation plan worked, people were taken out, something like this...

CORR. They wrote on the Internet that you were beaten. Is this true or not?

PANKRATOV. Well, I wouldn't say they beat me. But we were taken out of there, as it were. This was done physically, as it were. We didn’t resist, but in our direction, that is...

SAZYKIN. No matter how we resisted, we resisted. When the VGSCh arrived, about, one might say, half past four, the VGSCh arrived, about thirty minutes later a man came who introduced himself as the prosecutor of the Novokuznetsk district and said that we should go to the surface... And he, that is... We said, no, we won’t go out . He took it and pulled it by the shirt. Well, he pulled back, I said, I won’t go. He said: this is resistance. Then the people with the VGSCH attacked us, started dragging us away, trying to drag us into the diesel engine. To which I grabbed the pipe and said, I won’t go anywhere, that is, until our demands are met.

CORR. Did you convey your demands to anyone in writing or not?

SAZYKIN. The written requirements for the three-three schedule were provided back in February. That is, our team, including myself, collected signatures, a collective letter, and sent it to EvrAZ and Yuzhkuzbasugol, and to the State Duma. About ours, that is... As they explained to me in the trade union, we do not work according to this schedule, since there is a law that does not allow us to work for 8 hours... Although there are mines in Yuzhkuzbassugol, this is Erunakovskaya -8, she works 8 hours a day. And there is no law for her, it turns out. And for all other mines there is this law. This is not clear to me either. That is...They, accordingly, received an answer that you can work according to this schedule. That is, we previously raised this issue about the schedule...

CORR. According to wages. That is, you had a requirement there that it was 70 percent. That is what Putin was talking about. That is, is it possible to say that EvrAZ is not fulfilling Putin’s demands?

SAZYKIN. Yes, now, in my opinion, very few people’s demands are being fulfilled. What they say, as I understand it, perhaps the report is that it actually exists. But this is not being done. That is... Well, now the plan is 50 thousand, so the salary, and the absence of a plan is 30 thousand. But this... If there is a coefficient, then this salary... There is a safety coefficient... Then the salary will be even less. That is, well, it can also grow, but it grows very rarely.

CORR. Are there any repressive measures taken by the company or law enforcement agencies against you at all now?

PANKRATOV. Visually this is not felt. Of course, they are carrying out activities there to sort of streamline this situation and overcome it, in their offices, somehow at meetings they decide among themselves, because for them this is also such a non-standard situation and... So far nothing has been felt in relation to us.

CORR. Did they give you any fine?

PANKRATOV. Well, a fine... There is a fine... An administrative violation, a thousand rubles, that is, disobedience to a policeman’s order to leave... To leave, let’s say, the mine...



http://nk-tv.com/interview/8444-shakhtery-zabastovshchiki-my-reshili-skazat-svoe-slovo.html

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