Workers losing their jobs this summer under Ford’s plans to axe car production in Russia are protesting for higher pay-offs, according to reports in Russia.
The Moscow Times reports that the workers face a struggle to replace incomes in a region – St Petersburg – where typical monthly pay is just 25,000 rubles (USD390) per month — half the average wage at Ford.
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The workers say that they want 24 months’ salary as severance compensation from Ford Sollers (Ford’s JV) but have been offered just twelve – less than would be the case at other shuttered Ford plants in Europe.
The Ford Sollers St Petersburg plant’s union, The Ford Primary Trade Union Organisation, has demanded compensation equal to two years’ salary. It accounts for half of the plant’s workforce.
“Ford always told us we were part of a global team and that we would be treated equally, no matter where we were based in the world. But in practice, we’re being treated as if we were from different classes,” said Mikhail Sergeyev, the leader of the union, according to the Moscow Times.
“Why are we being treated worse than the Romanians, the Germans and the Belgians?”
The union is organising demonstrations, pickets, and a work-to-rule, threatening to grind production at the Vsevolozhsk factory to a halt if its demands are not met in the months before it finally closes.
