Of the three Yalizava Glassworks workshops, situated in Asipovichy district, only one is operating. Production is non-stop, so if they stop it, it will be a complete stop for the plant, said worried employees.
Yalizava Glassworks worker:
“They say to us that the company is in a difficult situation. People’s contracts end, and they are not being renewed. All of them have families, children. I do not know how it will be, where to look for work. There is now the work crisis in the country.”
In its best times, the Glassworks was a workplace for more than 1,800 persons. Now about 400 workers are holding onto their places. For a settlement of about 3,000 people, it is a matter of survival.
Valyantsin, Yalizava Glassworks worker:
“We no longer have an enterprise. Our plant is 100 years old, and we do not have any earnings except at the plant.”
The company’s situation became even more uncertain, after the detention of the ATEC Holding top management – the main investor of Yalizava and the owner of the Motavela plant.” According to several sources, they are accused of moving the capital outside the country. Back in May, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board and co-owner of the glass factory ATEC Holding, Alyaksandr Murauiou explained to the newspaper SB-Belarus Today that Yalizava was losing in the market of the Eurasian economic space through uneven competition with Russian companies, in particular, due to the difference in tariffs for gas, making up a third of the production cost.
Alyaksandr Murauiou, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Yalizava Glassworks:
“Since 2011 there has been growing a gap in the tariffs. Today it is catastrophic. For one thousand cubic meters, Russian companies pay $70. We pay $340. Is it possible to compete in these conditions?”
But a big role was played by the unproffesionalism of the new management, said the former boss of the sales department. The investor acquired a majority stake in the plant in 2002. In particular, replacing machines on the line with more productive ones was no good.
Alena Kutnikava, former head of sales department of the Yalizava Glassworks:
“Now many Belarusian canneries are buying cans in Russia. Why? Yalizava products are too expensive… And high production machines is a good thing, but people don’t need so many cans, because in Russia, they started producing cans as well. We simply were too late in the race for money, that’s what happened.”
The whole village turned out to be hostage to it though.
Maryna, former Yalizava Glassworks worker:
“It came to a point when women started going to Russia for work. Earlier, men went there, and now women from the plant do it. In Russia, there are many plants like ours.”
They go there for money, but they also work at the plant not to become the so-called parasites. For many people, the tax of 3.6 million rubles would be too big to handle.
Volha Klyauchenya, belsat.eu/en/
