The destiny of the only on the White Sea coast cement plant is of public concern in the settlement Savinskiy (Arkhangelsk Region).
Savinskiy Cement Plant is the largest cement producer in northern Russia. The plant was built in 1966 to supply the region with best quality cement used for monolithic and precast concrete manufacturing in residential and industrial construction business. Now it is on the verge of closing. The main production was stopped in early September. Of more than 500 workers, half have been dismissed, and those left are transferred to a shorter working day.
The company's management explain their actions by the need for a general reconstruction, but local residents fear that the plant will be simply disassembled and junked. They sent an open letter to the federal and regional authorities, in which they expressed their concern about the fate of Savinskiy Cement Plant. The appeal to President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Minister of Emergency Situations Vladimir Puchkov, Governor Igor Orlov, Speaker of the Regional Assembly Victor Novozhilov, as well as the heads of district administration and the municipality Savinskiy, reads partly as follows.
"The residents ask for your help in resolving this situation: to prevent the elimination of the only cement plant in the Arkhangelsk region, to save the municipality Savinskiy and ensure the livelihoods of its people. Savinskiy is the place of residence for about 10,000 people. In the settlement there are two kindergartens for 500 children, a comprehensive school for 845 children, a correctional school of regional importance, a professional school for 134 people, the hospital of district significance, the house of temporary stay for 40 elderly persons, and other objects of social and cultural needs.
We, the residents of the settlement Savinskiy, are well aware that the closing of the plant will lead to problems of life support for the settlement and its very existence. At a meeting with civil society organizations of Savinskiy, the factory management did not inform the public about the future of the plant: whether it would be the upgrading or the liquidation. […] Judging from the current situation, the plant is being prepared not to modernization, but to elimination, which will result in massive unemployment, impoverishment of the population, and an increase in crime."
Ernest Belokorovin, the Chairman of the Arkhangelsk Oblast Deputy Council's Committee on the Industrial Policy, Transport, Communications and Environment, says. "I believe it is necessary as soon as possible to begin negotiations between the regional authorities and the owner of the plant. Now the company dismantles the equipment ant takes it somewhere, carries out the staff reduction — all this is very disturbing and may lead to losing another enterprise important for the region, and, accordingly, to the reduction in jobs and tax revenues to the budget."
The local administration reports no acute social tensions over the workforce layoffs in the settlement. So far.
