"The accident could be avoided"

At the Mir mine in Yakutia , search and rescue work continues for the third week. On August 4, as a result of a breakthrough of water from a career, a mine was flooded, where 151 people were at the time of the incident. In the first two days, it was possible to save 142 miners. Eight people still remain underground, the searches of which do not stop. The risk to the life of rescuers is still posed by the threat of uncontrolled descent of the water career accumulated at the bottom.

Cleaning of blockages is carried out on a horizon of –210 meters in two directions. Work on the horizon of –310 meters were discontinued due to the threat of life of the rescuers themselves. If you believe the electronic marks that equip the helmets of all miners, it was there that there were four out of eight missing miners at the time of the accident. Now all efforts are aimed at finding miners on the horizon of –210 meters.

The accident could have been avoided, the former leader of the Independent Trade Union of Profoswobod by ALROSA employees Valentin Urusov is sure. In 2008, he began the struggle for the payment of overtime workers and the improvement of working conditions at the Alrosa mining plant in the city of Udachny. In a few months, he managed to create a new independent trade union and recruit over a thousand colleagues in his ranks, organize a protest and a hunger strike, which nearly stopped the work of the entire plant.

The activities of "Profoswoboda" caused the discontent of many power structures. According to the participants in the movement, they began to exert pressure on them. On September 13, 2008, Urusov was arrested on suspicion of drug storage. At the end of December, the Mirninsky District Court sentenced him under Article 228 of Part 2 of the Criminal Code of Russia to six years in prison. March 15, 2013 Valentin Urusov was released. According to many Russian and foreign human rights organizations, the case of the Leader of Profoswoboda was fabricated.

- Now a lot has already been said about the causes of the accident on the Mir mine. It seems to you that it could be foreseen and prevented?

- The accident could be avoided. The leadership knew and knows about all the problems in the company. In 2013, the Vice President of Alrosa Doiznikov, due to the fact that he was deprived of the Golden Parachute ( compensation paid by the leaders of the companies in case of dismissal or resigned on their own initiative. - RS ), from the stands of the State Assembly Il Tumen (Parliament of Yakutia-RS) spoke about the problems of security in the company, in particular about the Mir tube. The company officially states that it has no safety problems at the workplace. She even takes first places in some safety ratings. In fact, there are a lot of single problems that people fall into different situations. If the company recorded all cases of production injuries, then the indicators of Alrosa for labor safety would be very low. There would be more official checks, I would have to spend huge amounts on all these: on new equipment, safety precautions, and tools. There is a bunch of everything.

- That is, the company saves money on safety precautions?

- Yes, undoubtedly. I have a comrade who served as deputy director of the Anabar GOK in due time, back in the 2000s. He confirms that the problem with safety precautions exists everywhere: not only in successful, peaceful or in Aikhal. The company is just used to working like that. And there neither Ivanov, nor Petrov, nor Sidorov will change the situation. We need to spend a lot of money. Now the largest accident for Alrosa has happened. But the situation is unlikely to change.

-Exactly six days before the events of August 4, due to an increase in water, additional pumping units in the mine were installed. Then there was a collapse of the breed at the mine, which blocked one worker. But no lessons were taken from this situation. Why?

The company's management in general does not extract lessons. Always hopes at random. Most likely, in this case, they will arrange a window dressing and again until another accident

- The management of the company in general does not extract lessons. Always hopes at random. Most likely, in this case, they will arrange a window dressing and again until another accident. The pumps also had to be installed wisely, and not like them, for a look.

- The breakthrough occurred in the fifth month after the appointment of the new president of the company "Alrosa" Sergey Ivanov (son of the former head of the presidential administration Sergei Ivanov. - RS). What is his share of responsibility for what happened, in your opinion?

- The share of responsibility should be, like any leader. In my opinion, those who at the head of such non -professional companies are more to blame. Thus, they put priorities not on ordinary workers, but on profit and control over it. They say that people are more expensive than diamonds, which, as we see, on the contrary. This slogan does not fit in in any way with what is happening in Alrosa. Apparently, he speaks more about people in the leadership, and not about ordinary employees. Why did Ivanov appointed the leader? The privatization of "Alrosa" is prepared so that all the income is under control.

- The former leader Andrei Zharkov, how do you evaluate his activity?

- Zharkov, in my opinion, is the same as most leaders. It was just lucky that there were no serious accidents with him, and the small "Alrosa" never voices. Today is the largest. I do not believe in the fair punishment of all involved. Again they will find the extreme from the lower leadership, and even then they will limit themselves to something light.

- In the mine, the searches of eight miners are still continuing, but the situation is not stabilized, the water does not leave. Is there any hope of finding one of the miners alive?

I would like to believe in a miracle. But the information that is known today suggests that this is no longer a rescue operation, but a search engine

- I would like to believe in a miracle. But the information that is known today suggests that this is no longer a rescue operation, but a search engine. Four miners, who were –310 horizon, everything is already about them ... They cannot get it. Families in mourning. Four more on –210 horizon.

- Native missing miners say that the company that built such a mine can find means and ways to pump out water from it, and does not do it because of savings: they save the mine, not people. Maybe this?

- Of course, it is. The company was supposed to begin the career reclamation procedure (a set of measures for environmental and economic recovery. - RS) immediately after its closure. In the license for the extraction of diamonds, all this is indicated. The reclamation also includes a complete pumping of water and falling asleep with an ore. People were never valuable, they just survive, helping others get rich.

-Alrosa has already begun to employ employees of the Mir emergency mine, the management said that all days of downtime to the miners will be paid, and the relatives of the Mir Blocked in the Mir mine will be paid two million rubles, regardless of the outcome of the search and rescue operation. How acceptable are such compensation? Now the company management will be able to repay the indignation of miners and their relatives with such payments?

- Of course not. Judge for yourself, the families of four miners were left without breadwinners, fathers, husbands. I believe that the company should at least provide full financial support for all families of the dead miners until the age of adulthood of their children, as well as their higher education. This is not counting a one -time payment.

- How many years have you worked at Alrosa until 2008? What were the safety problems then?

- I have worked at the factory for seven years. I have never worked at the mine itself. I just have many friends and acquaintances there. Safety problems were and are in all departments of the company, starting with a tool that often has to buy it yourself, because it is impossible to use without risk to health. For example, we dragged huge engines manually, like burglaki. Yes, you can write a separate article on safety problems. Why don't they learn lessons? Because the perpetrators are not responsible.

- The Trade Union "Profoswobod", which you headed, raised these problems, did you require strengthening the safety of work?

The company has the main task - to prevent injured people from issuing this as a production injury. They are ready to give sick leave, give a vacation

- Our trade union has issues related to the safety of work were one of the main ones. When I formalized the trade union, I officially notified the employer. Then they still did not know what this could lead to, and simply missed. Created and created. They did not react at all. I went to Irkutsk for the trade union forum to understand how this system works. In matters of the trade union, I was a newcomer. In those days, the guys called me with a successful one and said to come, the problems were brewing. I arrived, met with workers of the auto depot of technological transport, there were 52 people. Patience burst, and they decided to take serious measures. Safety problems suffer everything, if only they would pay normally. Here the conflict was related to processing. According to the law for the weekend and holidays, it is necessary to pay in double volume, and Alrosa paid initially at a simple tariff. When this question arose, some representative from the company arrived and at the meeting openly stated that they really did not pay extra: if you want to complain, you want not. This has already become an extreme point. After this meeting, people began to gather and think about how to arrange a serious strike.

- Since then, much has changed for the better?

- First of all, the attitude of the leadership to problems should have changed, it has not changed, at least for the better. There are cases when it hits the workers and the current, and the collapse is small. 99 percent of problems are related to safety precautions. The company has the main task - to prevent injured people from issuing this as a production injury. They are ready to give sick leave, give a vacation. There is a guy in Novosibirsk now. He had a problem in the mine in a successful one. He remained disabled. "ALROSA" threw it and did not even pay it.

-What is now with the trade union movement in the company-are there any opportunity for miners to protect their rights?

- Now the company continues to parasitize the pocket union "Profalmaz", which repeatedly in the courts appears on the side of the employer, not at all embarrassed by this. In 2007 or in 2008, there was a conflict of "sandblasters", they did not pay compensation for harmfulness. This is the only conflict that Alrosa lost in court. The company was simply not ready, apparently. Then the union of the enterprise was surprisingly on the side of the employer. It was this story that pushed me to create a trade union.

- Is it really realistic to create a truly independent trade union that would defend the rights of miners?

The leadership immediately suppresses any activity on the part of ordinary workers. In the best case, they will fire. And the employee in this situation and his family can lose, and he has nowhere to leave if he is a local

- Of course, there are difficulties, as in any city -forming enterprise. Moreover, the leadership immediately suppresses any activity on the part of ordinary workers. In the best case, they will fire. And in this situation, the employee can lose his family and he has nowhere to leave, if he is local. The company began to practice the shift method of work well. There is a huge savings in public. Yes, and watchmen, as a rule, never climb into the wolf. They took it away, but fired - you can always return home. There were times that the leadership scared the people with my case.

- You have been living in Moscow for several years. You still have some contacts with people in peaceful, with miners and their families, these days you called up with someone, talked?

- In Moscow, since my release, since March 2013. I have a lot of acquaintances and friends in Yakutia. I am constantly in touch with them. But most of them, of course, are in the city of the Successful Mirni district. There is also a quarry, and the Alrosa mine, and the same safety problems. Last year, workers of the Mir mine called my peace. The call was associated with problems with wages and safety. People wanted to know how to create a trade union, what is needed for this. I could not help but warn them what, in this case, they should expect and what to be prepared for, based on their experience.

-“Mir”-a city-forming enterprise, people have no other work there, what to do now-you can give some advice to former colleagues or have nothing to advise?

- Unfortunately, the advice is not to do here. People lack confidence in their abilities. I would be very glad if they began to unite to jointly solve problems and created an independent trade union. There are no other tools for the struggle for their rights now.