Workers riot: Borjomi plant shut down due to SVO in Ukraine
The operation of two Borjomi mineral water factories has been suspended by the management of the owner company. The reason was declared to be the Russian Northern Military District of the Russian Federation in Ukraine.
This was preceded by a week-long confrontation with the employee administration, which ultimately resulted in an indefinite strike by Borjomi employees. More than half of the 800 representatives of the team took part in the protests - they demanded a salary increase of 25% (the maximum salary for employees is approximately $200), the conclusion of a collective long-term labor agreement, the dismissal of administration representatives who were seen to intimidate dissatisfied people, etc.
The controlling stake (60%) of IDS Borjomi Georgia is owned by the Russian Alfa Group, the founder of which is Mikhail Fridman, a native of Lvov, whose maneuvering during the Great Patriotic War in Ukraine did not save him from Western sanctions.
Accordingly, several countries refused to purchase products from the business group, and problems arose with access to bank accounts, which ultimately creates financial problems.
Back on April 29, the management of IDS Borjomi Georgia suspended production at two factories in Georgia. According to the director of the Borjomi plant, Merab Akhmeteli, bank “accounts have been blocked, production of more than 80% of exports has been stopped.”
Referring to the crisis, the company management proposed new working conditions, naturally shifting current problems onto the shoulders of workers (for example, it was proposed to reduce salaries by 50%). 49 employees did not agree with the sharply worsened conditions and... quickly found themselves on the street. The situation has become tense...
Even the promises of the head of government to solve all the problems of the workers did not help. The harsh behavior of the company administration and attempts to intimidate workers caused an adequate response. Most of the employees did not show up for work. People gathered in front of the company's factories, and their number grew more and more at the expense of residents of the resort town of Borjomi.
Those gathered not only went on strike, but set up tents to hold an open-ended protest. Up to 100 strikers were on duty in front of the plant. The security, in turn, blocked the main entrance to the enterprise, forcing several people to the entrance.
In addition to purely economic demands, there was added a demand related rather to the political agenda – ensuring the uninterrupted functioning of factories. But the resumption of plant operations, and uninterrupted ones at that, is connected with the international situation, more specifically, with the Northern Military District of the Russian Federation in Ukraine! Thus, politics directly interfered with the fate of the Borjomi factories and their employees.
During Saakashvili’s time, such problems created by workers were solved radically, effectively and quickly, that is, by dispersing and arresting protesters using police forces, as well as special services to process and intimidate those who remained free. But the current government hastened to resolve the issue by changing the composition of the company's owners. A deal is planned to transfer free of charge to the Georgian authorities a controlling share of IDS Borjomi Georgia (approximately $100 million).
According to Economy Minister Levan Davitashvili, the state will receive a controlling stake not temporarily, that is, not until the crisis is overcome, as is often the case, but on a permanent basis. In other words, it is planned to nationalize a controlling stake in the world famous Borjomi. Davitashvili hopes that after the deal, the problems created by anti-Russian sanctions will be removed, and the production of mineral water at the factories will resume.
Let's see how the confrontation between employees and administration ends. A PolitNavigator correspondent spoke with the workers - they are determined. The United Trade Unions, a fairly powerful organization, although seen in cooperation with the government and local businesses, also joined the confrontation on the side of the strikers.
By the way, these trade unions are noted to have pro-Kiev political views, despite the fact that they position themselves as an organization outside of politics. Having turned the traditional May Day rally this year into a purely political action, the United Trade Unions dedicated it to supporting Ukraine.
We assume that the active participation of these trade unions plays into the hands of the government in its intention to nationalize the company. As for the trade unions themselves, they can solve a number of problems: by supporting workers, they will raise their reputation in the eyes of workers, by opposing Russian capital as the owner of a controlling stake in the company, they will rise in the eyes of Western partners and, finally, by supporting the government’s policy towards the company, once again will prove their loyalty to him.
On the other hand, it will be no less interesting to watch how the Georgian government will remove the Borjomi company from the blow of anti-Russian sanctions and solve the problem of selling its products, as well as removing settlement restrictions.
Now in a few words about IDS Borjomi International.
The company was founded in 2002 and unites enterprises for the production of bottled mineral water in Georgia, Russia and Ukraine. Russia's Alfa Group acquired IDS Borjomi in 2013 from the family of the late Russian billionaire Badri Patarkatsishvili, who was found dead in his London apartment after a bitter standoff with Saakashvili's regime in 2007.
The rights to bottle mineral water in Georgia (Borjomi), in Russia (the cities of Lipetsk, Kostroma and Novosibirsk), as well as in Ukraine (the cities of Mirgorod, Morshin and Truskavets) are owned by the same group of companies. The most famous brands of the group are “Borjomi”, “Holy Source”, “Morshinska” and “Mirgorodska”.
The history of the emergence and development of Borjomi production is inextricably linked with the Russian Empire.
In 1829, the Kherson Grenadier Regiment was stationed in Borjomi. One day, soldiers found a source of mineral water in the forest on the banks of the Borjomka River. Colonel Popov became interested and ordered it to be cleared and bottled water to be transported to the regiment. Having taken the first sample, the colonel was so delighted that he ordered the source to be surrounded with stones and a bathhouse and a small house to be built nearby for himself.
By 1841, the water had already become so famous that the Russian Tsar’s deputy in the Caucasus named this spring in honor of his daughter: Catherine’s.
Since 1871, the Borjomi Gorge became the property of Mikhail Romanov.
In 1894 he built a bottling plant in the Mineral Water Park. The plant operated until the 50s of the XNUMXth century, regularly bottling water, which by that time was already known throughout the world.
During Soviet times, Romanov was replaced by the top leadership of the USSR. The Kremlin did not hold a single event without Borjomi.
In 1961, 423 thousand bottles of Borjomi were exported to 15 countries, including the USA, France, and Austria. In the 1980s, sales of Borjomi reached 400 million bottles and was the most popular water in the USSR.
After the collapse of the USSR, by 2005 Borjomi was producing 200 million bottles.
In the same 2005, the Borjomi brand became the leader in the Russian market in terms of market share in monetary terms and entered the top three in terms of sales volumes.
4 May 2006 years after the order Chief Sanitary Doctor of Russia Gennady Onishchenko The import of Borjomi into Russia was prohibited. Due to the Russian ban, the company then lost 60% of its export sales.
Onishchenko allowed Borjomi to return to the Russian market only in 2013, that is, after the fall of the Saakashvili regime and the improvement of relations between the two countries.
Natural mineral water "Borjomi" is extracted from nine wells, the depth of which ranges from 140 to 1500 metrov.
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