A Russian court has declared Podshipnikovyi zavod No. 6 OOO (State Bearing Factory #6, or GPZ-6 for short) insolvent and closed permanently. Located in Yekaterinburg, the factory was known as Urals Bearing Factory No. 6 until a name change in 2002.
The move follows last month's reports of another wave of hunger strikes by GPZ-6 workers who have gone unpaid, some of them for years. Previous hunger strikes have had an effect in several publicized incidents, if only that state investigators arrive and pay the strikers while others receive only promises.
At one time, the plant employed as many as 500 workers, and manufactured double-row, spherical and radial roller bearings in sizes from 80mm through 160mm bore.
A key manufacturing hub in the western Urals 900 miles west of Moscow, Yekaterinburg is home to heavy manufacturing and mining. Infrastructure products such as turbines, bearings and heavy machinery are produced in the area. Originally a mining center, the region has several gold and copper mines.
The region was not a manufacturing center until World War II, when Soviet state-run industries were moved from militarily vulnerable outlying states to this naturally protected Urals area.
Nonpayment of back wages has been a pervasive problem in Russia's deeply troubled economy, but as a market economy begin to take shape, the problem became even more acute. With massive communist-era overemployment plaguing most factories, little investment in plant and equipment, and few guaranteed market opportunities for their products, many plants have simply shut down after exhausting what little financial resources they were given. In other cases, company officials stopped paying wages and waited for the government to intervene.
Other News:
Timken Supplying Bearings for Plate Mill in Russia
Russia Shutters GPZ-6 Bearing Factory
Laconia Ball Bearing Gets Manufacturing Award for The Second Straight Year
Kaydon Corporation Reports Preliminary 2008 Results
SKF Excludes Illegal Convictions
Minebea Co., Ltd., Agrees to Acquire European Bearing Manufacturer, Myonic Holding GmbH
NKE Developed a Modular Bearing System for Planetary Wind Turbine Gearboxes (Pic)
Rexnord LLC Reports Third Quarter Results for Fiscal 2009
