Hundreds of construction workers strike at ‘Gazprom’ skyscraper in St. Petersburg

Construction workers at the site of the Lakhta Center skyscraper in St. Petersburg have gone on strike demanding payment of wage arrears. According to 47news.ru, at least 500 people have joined the strike; most of them are migrant workers from Central Asia.

According to a representative for Renaissance Construction, the general contractor in charge of the site, the workers “are insisting on payments that go beyond the scope of their employment contracts,” Interfax reported. The company claims that it doesn’t owe its workers any wage arrears.

The news outlet FlashNord reported that Uzbekistan’s consul has arrived at the site, as well as riot police.

According to the St. Petersburg-based outlet Fontanka, the protest at the Lakhta Center “could provoke events at the company’s other facilities,” apparently referring to the recent workers’ strike at the Amur Gas Processing Plant, which is under construction by Renaissance Heavy Industries.

“The workers at Lakhta are receiving all the payments they are due, but there are long-standing disagreements between them and the management, which already caused unrest in February of this year,” a source told Fontanka. “Renaissance is paying them [in the form of] compact accommodation, [work] permits, food, full official registration, and a social package, as such, their salaries could be slightly lower.” 

Similarly, construction workers working on the runway at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport started demanding overtime pay on July 17. According to Interfax, the company they are working for belongs to “the Dutch structures of the Turkish holding company Renaissance.”

The Lakhta Center is an 87-story multi-use complex in St. Petersburg that’s set to become the new headquarters for the Russian energy giant, Gazprom, RIA Novosti recalls. Construction on the skyscraper itself ended in October 2018, but “work on the arrangement of business and public areas” is currently ongoing. The Lakhta Center is currently the tallest building in Russia, as well as Europe.