Riga. 15 August 2022 17:55-19:40. Handed out 180 newspapers “Workers’ Struggle” (No. 2) at the plywood factory “Lignums”. The workers took the newspaper wonderfully, refused to take only about 15 people.
One man who didn’t take the newspaper said he was happy with everything: working conditions, insurance, and a recent pay raise. Some of the people who saw us handing it out asked, “Should we vote for you? We answered, “No, we’re campaigning for the unions.”
The security guard prohibited handing out on the porch in front of the entrance to the company. He said that because of the large turnover of personnel they began to improve working conditions and “social services.
We talked to a young, positive guy who works at a plywood factory through an agency – he said he was working temporarily because of the difficult working conditions. It’s noise, working 12-hour shifts, night shifts. He is a physiotherapist by profession. He also told us that the factory uses a system of fines for defects, but he considers it the norm. We explained the illegality of such actions.
We talked to a guest worker from Uzbekistan. He looked at the newspaper for a long time and, pointing to Lenin’s image, asked: “Is this a good man or not?” We replied that he is good. He said he thought so too.
We talked to a man who has been working at the plant for 20 years, he looks about 40-45 years old. He said that on the whole he was satisfied with everything, that this was his first official job. He generally likes the 12-hour shifts “2 through 2” because there are often days off. But the night shifts are not so good: the whole day falls out. He gets a salary of about 900 euros. He is generally very positive about such a newspaper, and agrees that until the workers themselves will not fight, nothing will change. He said that recently they raised the wage by 20-30 cents an hour.
Many asked: “What’s in the newspaper?”. They talked a little about the cost of labor, about the need to fight for better working conditions and higher wages.
Comrades Fjodorov, Birkis, Aleksandryan
