A plant in Nizhny Novgorod set up a "prison" for workers, and sends some of them to Africa

Alexander Dybin

The Yazaki-Volga enterprise has been operating in the Nizhny Novgorod region for more than 10 years. This is the "daughter" of the Japanese corporation Yazaki. It manufactures harnesses for automotive wires. It has two sites in the region: in Nizhny Novgorod and Gorodets. Since April, the factories have been sent to idle. The main buyers of the products are automotive companies. Nizhny Novgorod worked for Peugeot and Nissan in Kaluga, and Gorodets supplies products to AvtoVAZ. Car plants are standing, which means they don’t need wiring.

The incident took place in Nizhny Novgorod. The workers were told that they had to come to the plant and stay there three days a week. It is proposed to “serve” the term in the dining room. People were outraged by the conditions: all the furniture was taken away from there, and they were offered to sit on wooden pallets, on which scraps of cardboard boxes were laid. According to the workers, this is how people are forced to quit.

“The problems began back in March, at first there were difficulties with the supply of materials that came from Europe, they began to clean the beginning of one shift, then the second, and in April they went completely idle. Now there is no information about the exit from downtime, they also don’t want to cut us off according to the Labor Code, ”an employee of the enterprise told Novye Izvestia.

The story received a response after a vivid story on the local Seti-NN TV channel, where workers communicated with a journalist through a fence, and security tried to drive away the film crew. The TV channel managed to get an explanation from the management of the enterprise: they will not lay off people, because sooner or later they will have to produce the already ordered volume of products. And the "sitting" in the dining room was necessary so that the workers did not scatter to part-time jobs during downtime.

“We had such an experience when employees, being at home, were looking for an opportunity to somehow improve their financial situation. We did not interfere with them at all, we even welcomed them to some extent. But then it turned out that we were forced to call them back to work, and in response we received a not very clear excuse why the employee could not be at work on that particular day and hour, ”said Azat Khusnulin, director of a separate division.

The Labor and Employment Inspectorate promised to check compliance with labor laws.

According to one of the employees of the plant, after the scandal, the domestic situation has become a little better, but people are still creating difficulties.

“Yesterday there was a meeting. It was announced to us that we had to come three days a week: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to work, - said the interlocutor, - if the order for tourniquets from Kaluga did not appear, then we were allowed to go home. But many come from other settlements, for example, I am from Balakhna. The bus brings us. And here they decided to cheat. They will take us to the factory. But the bus will go back only as if after the shift at 16 o'clock. The working week was reduced to 3 days by order in the spring. Accordingly, the salary is two-thirds for downtime and, accordingly, for 3 days a week. The auto industry is worth it. The salary is reduced to the minimum wage. And this situation is hidden unemployment. People want to work, but there are no jobs. And management does not provide jobs, and is not going to cut. The situation is stalemate. Many worked for Yazaki in Gorodets for 10 years. We just have trouble with the lack of work and loading.

According to another employee of the plant, after the scandal, the workers were transferred to another air-conditioned room.

“After the arrival of the TV channel, we had a conversation with the director, who asked us to scatter such big words as “stall”, “bunks”, “corrals”, but he also made concessions, we were gathered in a more pleasant place, air conditioners were working, connected refrigerators, toilets were washed. Hot water appeared, you can drink tea,” the source said.

At the same time, the workers have another alternative, except to come to work in the morning and find out if there is an order. Workers can go on a business trip to... Africa to work at the Yazaki company.

“This was offered to workers from Gorodets, they can go to Africa for three months to train local employees, they will pay for the flight, accommodation, meals,” the interlocutors of Novye Izvestia said, “workers from Nizhny Novgorod asked if they could go, but answered if space remains.

Salaries at the enterprise fell almost three times. Until March, workers received about 31 thousand rubles, now, taking into account downtime and three days, it comes out to 13 thousand rubles. The company's prospects are not clear; no one is talking about the sale of the Japanese plant. More clarity in Gorodets, who worked for Avtovaz, according to rumors, there will soon be an order for harnesses for Grant and West.

“There is one rumor that no one confirms, this is the reassignment of our enterprises from the European division of Yazaki to the Asian one in order to switch supplies to China, but this is also at the level of conversations,” the source said.

Novye Izvestia made an inquiry to the enterprise and the government of the Nizhny Novgorod region about the fate of the plants and alternative jobs for employees. At the time of publication, no responses have yet been received.

As Novye Izvestia previously reported, a number of enterprises in the country went into idle time due to problems with supplies, sales, or the position of foreign owners. For example, in the city of Tikhvin, Leningrad Region, a car-building plant has not been operating since April due to the lack of bearings produced under an American license. More than 7 thousand people are idle. The other day, the management of the plant announced that it was preparing to start the workshops again in the second half of July.