Arsenal workers meet Cabinet after reform policy protest (01/03/93)

Arsenal workers meet Cabinet after reform policy protest

by Borys Klymenko
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

KIEV - About 3,000 Arsenal Factory workers marched from their plant to the Supreme Council of Ukraine on Saturday, December 26, demanding the immediate abolition of the Cabinet of Ministers' decree "On price regulation," which has quintupled their water bills, quadrupled the price of bread, and raised the price of public transport from 50 kopeks to 5 coupons. They decried the measure as "robbery."

At first, Vasyl Durdynets and Volodymyr Hryniov, the two deputy chairmen of Parliament, came out to hear their grievances. Mr. Durdynets' proposition to return to the factory where they would be met by a government negotiator was rejected.

Mr. Hryniov did not fare much better. He was jeered when he suggested that the government's failure was "in not explaining what the price increases were, and why they were necessary." Also impolitic was his question "So then, do you believe the government is your enemy?" which drew a "Yes!" Then he sought to shift blame for the policies of the government on the electorate who installed it, which provoked shouts of "Shame!"

Meanwhile, as the parliamentary leaders left to confer with the workers' representatives, the assembled workers were addressed by the leader of the Socialist Party of Ukraine (the renamed Communist faction), Oleksander Moroz. Mr. Moroz called on the workers to join the efforts of other factory workers, form a council of workers' collectives and exert pressure on the government.

"I insist that the Supreme Council be convened immediately in order to impose a moratorium on the government's measures, which have led to the conditions you now face," Mr. Moroz said. However, his appeal seemed to arouse little enthusiasm.

Spurred by the strike action, Prime Minister Leonid Kuchma addressed the country in a television broadcast, blaming the twoyear tenure of Vitold Fokin for the current economic woes, as well as on the sharp rise in energy prices - 30,000 percent increase in oil, and 10,000 percent increase in gas. He reminded everyone that the general rate of inflation ran at 2,000 percent in 1992.

Mr. Kuchma then detailed the government's policy of subsidizing milk and meat, imposition of controls monopoly enterprises, and tough measures against illegal income. He reiterated a claim made by Viktor Pynzenyk, minister of the economy, that the government's policies would reduce inflation from the current rate of 50 percent per month to 3 percent by the end of 1993.

The prime minister also expressed his belief that there are no alternatives at this point, because any other approach would lead to "a complete collapse of the country's economy and a halt in industrial production."

The workers' representatives were called to the parliamentary offices, where they met with government officials, including Mr. Pynzenyk, Vasyl Yevtukhov (deputy premier for fuel and energy), Yuliy Ioffe (deputy premier for industry and construction), and Volodymyr Demianov (minister of the agro-industrial complex). In the course of fourhour talks, the latter managed to convince the militants of the necessity of the economic measures. They also promised to meet the others at the factory grounds.

The officials then held a press conference, at which Mr. Pynzenyk declared that "we will continue along this path. We will pursue our program firmly and resolutely."

As promised, Messrs. Pynzenyk and Yevtukhov met with Arsenal workers on Monday, December 28. The workers of the "Arsenal" plant man one of the largest plants of the military industrial complex, not only in Ukraine, but in the entire former Soviet Union. Until 1990, 90 percent of the plant's production was geared to military orders, which currently account for only 3 percent of its work.

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