It’s likely that workers at the Alaverdi Copper Factory will receive official notification from the owners to cease all work activities. The owners have already verbally warned them. One of the workers at the factory, Armen Kirakosyan, spoke to Aravot and expressed his worry that Alaverdi’s backbone will break if the factory closes. “Around 650-700 people work at the factory. That feeds 2000-2500 people. About 98 percent of the workers have loans to pay off. There is no family at the factory that doesn’t have some sort of loan. At the very least, they have 2 million drams in loans. The copper factory is the only workplace in Alaverdi that allows the city to breathe and to survive. Stores, taxis, and the entire life of the city is built around the factory.”
The owner of the Alaverdi Copper Factory and Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan met to discuss the problems facing the factory. The owners of the factory claim that they are closing it due to environmental issues, but the VTB bank has announced that it own the factory now. The factory owners took out a 500 million dollar loan from the bank, and after that was not paid off, it was passed on to the bank.
Lusine Budaghyan
“ARAVOT”
16.10.2018
