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[Livingontheland] Russian steel workers resort to growing potatoes

From: mdnagel@verizon.net
To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [Livingontheland] Russian steel workers resort to growing potatoes
Date: Fri, 01 May 2009 06:28:48 -0500 (CDT)

Russian steel
workers resort to growing potatoes
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 The wave is building. Mark Nagel Everett, WA Source: <=
a href=3D"http://sg.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20090430/tbs-russia-steel-potatoes-=
7318940.html" class=3D"parsedLink" target=3D"_blank">http://sg.news.yahoo.c=
om/rtrs/20090430/tbs-russia-steel-potatoes-7318940.html</a> Russian stee=
l workers resort to growing potatoesBy Robin Paxton and Natalya Shurmina<br=
> MOSCOW/YEKATERINBURG, April 30 - Steel workers in Russia'sindustri=
al heartland are returning to the land to dig themselves out ofan economic =
crisis that has pushed national unemployment rates to an8-year high. <br=
>Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works <magn.mm> isoffering 1,000 plots of land=
around Russia's biggest steel plant onwhich its employees can grow potatoe=
s free of charge. Transport to thefarms and 24-hour security will be includ=
ed. "Sowing will beginnext week, weather permitting," Alexander Deru=
nov, chairman of thesteel plant's trade union committee, was quoted as sayi=
ng inMagnitogorsk's in-house newspaper. "The earth there has been fa=
llow for seven years now. The crop should be good." Tenpercent of th=
e Russian workforce, or 7.5 million people, wereunemployed in March as the =
country headed into its first recession in adecade. Another 1.2 million wer=
e on unpaid leave or forced holiday,Economy Ministry data shows. Ste=
el makers and associatedindustries, such as the automotive and machine-buil=
ding sectors, aremost at risk from a further round of job cuts that the min=
istry expectswill affect more than a third of all Russian companies. <br=
>"In thecurrent situation, protecting the interests of its workers has beco=
me apressing concern for the management," said Yevgeny Kovtunov, aspokesman=
for Magnitogorsk, which employs about 25,000 people in theUral mountains c=
ity of the same name. AVOIDING UNREST SteeringRussia through =
the economic crisis and avoiding mass social unrestposes a major challenge =
for the country's leaders, who have grownaccustomed to nearly a decade of e=
conomic boom fuelled by high oil andcommodity prices. "Everyone is s=
aying: 'Crisis! Crisis!'," saidEduard Rossel, the long-serving governor of =
Sverdlovsk region, home tomany of Russia's metallurgical and machine-buildi=
ng enterprises. "We need to gossip less about the crisis, and work h=
arder," he told reporters. "Giveme a hammer, a saw, and in a few mon=
ths I will build a house, avegetable garden, and do everything to save myse=
lf and my family."Sverdlovsk region has 82,600 registered unemployed, more =
than triplethe number of jobless at the beginning of October. The rate at w=
hichunemployment is growing, however, has slowed to 2-3 percent each weekfr=
om 10 percent in January. In Chelyabinsk, the neighbouringregion tha=
t is home to the Magnitogorsk steel plant, 67,318 people areregistered unem=
ployed -- 3.7 percent of the working population. </magn.mm></body></=
html>

[Livingontheland] Russian steel workers resort to growing potatoes, mdnagel, 05/01/2009
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- [Livingontheland] Russian steel workers resort to growing potatoes, mdnagel, 05/01/2009