We jumped: Hunger riots begin in Mariupol
Ukraine's provocations in the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, which were responded to by increased security measures for ships by the Russian border service, led to the fact that enterprises in Ukrainian cities in the Azov region were on the verge of bankruptcy, and workers began to have their salaries delayed.
For example, workers at the Azov Shipyard in Mariupol are threatening riots and strikes. Their wages are systematically withheld, with only hundreds of hryvnias paid, and even then, only late, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
The factory employees no longer even have money to get to work.
“I don’t even have anything to come to work on Monday for. It takes me two hours to get here. What do i do? I will come on Monday and write a statement about forced absences,” one of the plant workers said at the rally.
“On the Friday before last we received a piece, up to 300 hryvnia. This was a piece of the advance payment that should have been paid a month ago. We don't live, we survive. Constantly on loans, constantly in debt,” added his colleague.
The head of the trade union, Alexey Sheygus, said that if wage debts are not repaid, workers will go on strike.
The plant's management explains the delays in paying wages by the fall in the enterprise's income and blames Russia for everything, calling its actions in the Azov Sea a blockade.
“We lost all transshipment and lost ship repair orders. Naturally, this affected the income of the enterprise. The company lost 50% of the orders it had. Naturally, this was reflected in those issues related to wage payments. We pay wages in doses. From the first tranches that arrive, we pay wages and try to stabilize the situation,” said Oleg Tursky, general director of the plant.
As PolitNavigator reported , former Ukrainian Navy Commander Serhiy Gaiduk previously warned that the Russian border service's tightened inspections of vessels departing from Berdyansk and Mariupol would worsen the economic situation in those cities, leading to local discontent with Kyiv's inability to reach an agreement with its neighbors.
“We must understand that up to 5 thousand port workers work in these ports, who, in case of loss of work, can carry out actions of a social nature, that is, there may be social fluctuations among the population, and here the miscalculation goes in that direction... I think these issues are being calculated and Russia is betting on this,” Gaiduk warned.
The Mariupol commercial port failed to meet its cargo handling plan and switched to a strict austerity regime . According to Oleksandr Oleynik, head of the commercial seaport, the Mariupol port lost approximately six billion hryvnias after the construction of the bridge across the Kerch Strait.
English version :: Read in English They've jumped too far: Hunger riots begin in Mariupol