Paul
Goble
Staunton, May 13 – Vladimir Putin
will respond by July 1 to an appeal from striking long-haul truckers to do away
with the Plato fee system, the Presidential Administration says, according to Bessilikto
Dugarov, a lawyer who helped drivers in Buryatia compile it (baikal-media.ru/news/society/340842/).
In that appeal (baikal-media.ru/news/society/339152/), the drivers said that they had no recourse but to
strike and to continue their strike until the Plato system was cancelled. “We
pay a transportation tax, we pay for fuel and equipment, we pay fines.” The Plato fees simply make our lives
impossible, they said.
At
the same time, the drivers indicated that they were quite prepared to negotiate
and explained that for many of them, the most important thing was that the powers
that be take notice of their concerns and meet them at least part of the
way. That now appears to be happening
not only in Moscow but elsewhere.
In
other developments over the last two days, officials in North Ossetia met many
of the demands of the drivers, although as a federal subject, they are not in a
position to change the federal law on their own. Indications are that the
strike continues there as a result (alania.news-r.ru/news/society/103082/).
Elsewhere, some drivers were leaving
the parking places where they had organized the strike, and Russian media were
thus declaring an end to the labor action (orsk.ru/news/71465),
but many drivers said they were still on strike and would not carry any cargo
until their demands were met (udm-info.ru/news/economy/11-05-2017/dalnoboyschiki-raz-ehalis-s-votkinskogo-shosse-no-do-sih-por-ne-berut-zakazov).
The
long-haul drivers feel they have no choice. As one trucker from Udmurtia put
it, the Plato system has driven them back into an economic situation which is “now
even worse than the one they faced in the 1990s” (sobesednik.ru/politika/20170512-dalnoboyshchik-iz-udmurtii-seychas-tyazhelee-chem-v-90-e).
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