Strike at KIM factory in Vitebsk

Worker unrests hit KIM hosiery and knitting factory on September 10-11 due to the wage debt.

Narodnye Novosti Vitebska leanrt from a source at the factory that employees haven't received wages for July and some workers don't have their June wages. The second shift in one of the shops refused to work in June 10, the first shift did the same on June 11.

The factory director, Viktar Aksionau, met with strikers on June 10. He tried to calm down the protesting women appealing to the difficult situation at the factory.

A male voice in the audio recording provided by the source says to employees that wages were not paid because the factory's accounts accounts were frozen due to debts to the social protection fund. Contributions to the pension fund are more important than paying wages due to the increased pensions, he explains.

The man emphasises that the downtime is profitable for rivals and complaints are harmful for the company. He says Lukashenka didn't visit KIM factory for that reason.

He remarked that the company's debt to the state was 80 billion rubles, but the factory expected 40 billion rubles of aid.

He criticised the visit of prime minister to KIM factory: “The governor wanted to report to Lukashenka that the factory needs urgent financial aid. Miasnikovich and his retinue arrived. The saw the factory and concluded that the situation was clear and they had nothing to do there.”

The PM noted during the visit that the factory had already received aid three times, but the steps were not effective. KIM's sales are low. Finished products at the warehouse made 180.4% of the monthly output, though the production capacity of the lines of hosiery and knitted goods was 27% and 52.4% respectively for the period of January-June. “Like any living organism, the enterprise cannot live forever. It is must be either upgraded or liquidated,” Mikhail Miasnikovich said during a discussion of prospects for KIM factory.

Journalists tried to take a comment from the factory director, but he doesn't answer the phone.