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A letter to Mayor Victor Cherepkov

There are no blackouts right now in Vladivostok. But workers at the energy supply monopoly, Dalenergo, are bitter at Mayor Victor Cherepkov, and they're threatening to walk out.

Every Tuesday, hundreds of energy workers come to picket the city administration building. They don’t do it because they have nothing else to do. Deeply concerned about the heat and hot water situation, they are pushed to action by their responsibility to Vladivostok’s citizens. Neither the creation of different commissions, nnor numerous meetings with you, Viktor Ivanovich, and your representatives, has brought any result in solving the situation concerning the city’s electricity debts to Dalenergo.

Since you were restored as mayor, you have made feeble attempts at trying to determine how much money municipal enterprises owe Dalenergo. Finally, when presidential representative Viktor Kondratov managed to fix the problem, you didn’t accept his decision. You keep saying that Dalenergo owes money to the city. As soon as someone mentions the federal decree about financing the energy industry by local authorities, you point out that Vladivostok can’t be considered a federal subject. But the city undoubtedly is. You are clearly trying to create chaos in the local economic situation and to destroy the energy-supply system that has worked for ages in Vladivostok.

You refuse to sign a contract with Dalenergo on supplying citizens with heat. This is a contract which is supposed to be signed according to federal decree. You say that the krai, not the city, must pay for electricity. Maybe you are right. But, it is not the business of Dalenergo to find a payee. It is your responsibility to decide what sources pay money to Dalenergo. If you can’t do it, it is time to talk about your competence.

Primorye energy workers and miners have not been paid for many months, and you are to be blamed for that. Today, you are giving us a choice: either to continue enduing starvation and your mockery, or to strike. We’ve decided to resume striking, with no time limit, on Nov.3. And the responsibility for its consequences, inconveniences, and possible tragedy to ordinary citizens will be yours.

We began supplying the city with heating recently and now must charge citizens a full 100 percent of the bill; after all, we are not a charity fund and can’t sell electricity for less than its production cost. We want Vladivostok’s citizens to know who they must blame. Apparently, your idea of caring for city residents is to cause them unpleasantness and discomfort.

The Dalenergo Strike Committee