Alexander Negrebetskikh is again ready to fight for his plant with a saber.

The rolling mill worker at the Zlatoust Metallurgical Plant, Alexander Negrebetskikh, again sent an appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a request to help the enterprise get back on its feet. Half of the workshops are idle, due to lack of orders, layoffs have begun. Four years ago, Negrebetskikh already went on a hunger strike and wrote to the federal authorities, then the city-forming plant in Zlatoust was imposed on Mechel and preserved. However, the situation at ZMZ is again critical. Top managers of the plant say that they are looking for solutions to problems, but workers do not believe them and are waiting for an answer from the head of state. Details are on URA.Ru.

Rolling worker at the Zlatoust Metallurgical Plant (ZMZ), Alexander Negrebetskikh, became famous in 2009 when he organized a series of protests, including a hunger strike, drawing attention to the problem of stopping the work of the enterprise due to the crisis. Then the worker flooded regional and federal authorities with requests to intervene in the situation. He wrote that the owner of the plant, Group of Companies "Estar" of State Duma deputy Vadim Varshavsky, deliberately brought ZMZ to bankruptcy, presenting it as a guarantor and debtor for loans taken for the development of other enterprises included in the group of companies. Stopping the work of the metallurgical plant would lead to a social explosion - this is a city-forming enterprise where almost 10 thousand Zlatoust residents worked.

And a simple roller managed to achieve the impossible. The former governor of the Chelyabinsk region, Pyotr Sumin, sent his special representative Alexander Karavaev to Zlatoust. And, at the voluntary-compulsory proposal of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, ZMZ took custody of Igor Zyuzin’s Mechel company. At first, a tripartite partnership agreement was drawn up. Over time, a deal was concluded to purchase the plant. The Chelyabinsk Iron and Steel Works (part of Mechel) shared part of the orders, and ZMZ resumed work. Moreover, from time to time the company announced an increase in production volumes.

The next time the Zlatoust Metallurgical Plant came to the attention of federal authorities was in April last year. Then, at a meeting between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and United Russia activists in Moscow, steelmaker Dmitry Chervyakov complained about low earnings and salary arrears. So that the head of state could see for himself in his words, the metallurgist invited him to Zlatoust. Medvedev did not go to the Southern Urals, but instructed the investigative committee to deal with the owners of the enterprise. The audit showed that workers at ZMZ receive money on time. However, living conditions at the enterprise are really bad. Earlier, Chelyabinsk Governor Mikhail Yurevich was convinced of this. Moreover, he found out this even before Chervyakov complained to the president. At the direction of the governor, ZMZ began urgently repairing the cabins. In addition, an unpleasant discovery for Yurevich was that the real average salary at the enterprise was 12 thousand rubles, while the official data indicated the amount was 17 thousand rubles. He demanded that the plant management resolve the issue of increasing wages.

Steelmaker Dmitry Chervyakov told Medvedev a year and a half ago about the pre-crisis situation at ZMZ

A year and a half later, ZMZ management announced that the average salary had increased to 19.1 thousand rubles. However, rolling mill operator Alexander Negrebetskikh notes that the increase was made due to the dismissal of employees and this figure is added up taking into account the income of top management, while ordinary workers receive less. From 2008 to the present day, the number of personnel has decreased from 9.8 thousand people to 5 thousand employees. The following workshops are closed: open-hearth, electric furnace melting No. 1, hammer, refractory, foundry and pile driver.

To his current appeal to Vladimir Putin, the Negrebetskikh roller operator attached orders from ZMZ General Director Anton Levada to send employees on idle time, reduce the working day to 6 hours 30 minutes or less, as well as other decisions that are not popular among staff. Including the partial suspension of the work of electric steelmaking department No. 2 (ESPO). Now only ESPO No. 1 is working normally.

“ZMZ is a plant of special steels and alloys, which has been flawlessly fulfilling defense government orders of our country all its life! But difficult times came, and starting in 2008, our plant became seriously in trouble. Now there is a reduction in workers, redistribution among workshops, and some workers are being laid off. The history of 2008 is repeating itself. But we don’t want to stand on the barricades, we want to work and get a decent salary. We want to glorify our country, our city, our factory. Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! I understand that our case is not an isolated one, but it is special. Such an enterprise and city cannot be allowed to perish. I ask you to take control of all actions of the management of OJSC ZMZ. I ask for your assistance in obtaining government orders for the production of special steels. If necessary, provide workers with public works in order to preserve the company’s staff, as was the case in 2009,” Negrebetskikh writes in his address to Putin.

After the visit of Mikhail Yurevich, ZMZ management made repairs to the cabins and promised to raise the salaries of employees, but did this by reducing staff

The management of ZMZ, through its press service, told URA.Ru that due to a decrease in demand for metal products in the Russian and international markets, the company’s management is “considering various options for loading production capacity in conditions of a decline in production in order to minimize losses and preserve jobs.” It is especially emphasized that the reductions are not massive.

The head of the factory trade union committee, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Chelyabinsk region, Marat Safiev, said that the workload of the enterprise had indeed dropped significantly. Nevertheless, ZMZ management refrains from layoffs, sending employees on idle or part-time work. “The Negrebetskys’ appeal will not yield anything, because the authorities have no right to interfere in private business. In 2009 they deliberately went bankrupt. Now the situation is different - the decline in metallurgy as a whole. The situation is not happy, it is difficult. But ZMZ was not included in the list of Mechel assets put up for sale, which means there are plans for our plant,” says Safiev.

The situation around ZMZ was considered at a meeting of the industry commission of the city assembly. At it, the general director of the metallurgical plant, Anton Levada, admitted that production volumes have decreased by 20% since the beginning of the year, and there are no state defense orders. And if the situation does not change, the cuts (even if not massive) will continue.

According to Alexander Negrebetskikh, ZMZ still has a debt of 14 billion rubles inherited from Warsaw. And despite all the assurances of the company’s management, the situation is critical and requires urgent intervention.

The president is again expected to exercise manual control: “At least give us public work!”