NUMBER 4, 1964

ALL EFFORTS TO A C C E L E R A T E THE G R O W T H OF THE

(UDC 660: 669.1)

E.S. Danilov

Central Committee of the Trade Union for Workers in the Metallurgical Industry Translated from Metallurg, No. 4, pp. 1-2, April, 1964

C H E M I C A L I N D U S T R Y

The Last decade has convincingly demonstrated that the Communist Party and the Soviet Government concen- trate all their efforts on the achievement of noble aims-everything for humanity and for its welfare. Clear evidence of this were the December (1968) and February (1964) Plenums of the CC of the CPSU during which questions were considered which are of the greatest importance for the expansion of the chemical industry in the national economy, intensification of agriculture, and on this basis further raising the level of prosperity of the nation.

The creation of a surplus of agricultural products is the duty not only of the kolkhoz and sovkhoz workers, but also of the industrial workers who produce new machines, mineral fertilizers, and means of crop protection.

One of the fundamental conditions for raising the level of farming and livestock industries and increasing the production of grain, meat, milk, and other products is the union of chemistry and agriculture. The application of chemistry opens the way to intensification of production and achievement of the highest labor productivity.

The December Plenum of the CC of the CPSU indicated that the realization of the program for expanding the chemical industry requires the mobilization of all the force of the workers in industry, construction, transport, agri- culture, science, and technology as well as skillful utilization of reserves and capacities. In this regard the role of

social organizations in stimulating creative initiative among the workers during the realization of plans to expand

the chemical industry will increase immeasurably.

In conjunction with the resolutions of the December Plenum of the CC of the CPSU, on D.ecember 23 a second

plenum of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions convened and specified the role and place of the trade

unions in the accelerated expansion of the chemical industry.

The second plenum of the Central Committee of the Trade Union for Workers in the Metallurgical Industry which convened in February of the current year thoroughly examined the question "On the Duties of the Trade Union

Organizations of Workers in the Metallurgical Industry with Regard to the Resolutions of the December (1963) Plenum

of the CC of the CPSU and the Second Plenum of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions" and noted practical means of participation of the metallurgists in the national striving to realize the plans for expansion of the chemical

industry which were worked out by the Communist Party.

Metallurgists have at their disposal inexhaustible capacities for supplying the rapidly expanding chemical industry with raw materials and other needed materials as welL

Metallurgical installations are credited with a fourth of the entire quantity of sulfuric acid produced in the country in 1963, thousands of tons of superphosphate and several other phosphate and potassium fertilizers, and a considerable quantity of toxic chemicals for agriculture, with the production of which are involved over 50 metallur-

gical installations.

The coke-chemical industry, which now leads the world in volume of production, annually produces more than 25 billion m e of coke-oven gas and millions of tons of various chemical products which at the present rime include approximately 100 different items. The coke-chemical industry supplies the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, the building industry, railway transport, and other branches of the national economy. The fraction of coke-chemical raw material used in the production of plastics, chemical fiber, and other synthetic materials currently exceeds 60~

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Metallurgists are faced with large tasks in the timely delivery of metals to the chemical machine-building industry and the new chemical installations under construction. Orders for delivery of metal to meet the needs of the chemical industry are now being filled by over 50 metallurgical installations.

The great program for accelerated development of the chemical industry in_as occasioned an inexhaustible tide of creative activity among the workers and an immense labor and political improvement among the metallurgists.

The state plan for 1963 was successfully handled by coliectives of the Magnitogorskand Kuznets Metallurgical Combines, the A. K. Serov Combine, the Cherepovers, Taganrog, "Zaporozhstal '", "Krasny Oktyabr'", and many other plants,

In honor of the December Plenum of the CC of the CPSU, workers of the Dneprodzerzhinsk, Bagleysk, and Dnepropetrovsk coke-chemical plants, overfulfilling previously assumed socialistic pledges by almost three times, sent 2.9 thousand tons of ammonium sulphate over plan to the fields of the country. The workers of the Yasinov, Rutchenkov, Makeev, and Enaldev coke-chemical plants produced approximately 2. 5 tho~and tons of sulphuric acid over plan.

The plenum of the Central Council of Trade Unions noted that many trade union organizations and social leaders of the installations still poorly conduct organizational and training projects for mobilizing workers and e m - ployees to strive for fulfillment of socialistic pledges, inefficiently direct socialistic competition and the communist labor movement, do not adequately study and distribute advanced industrial experience, and do not take the neces- sary measures to improve labor and industrial organization. Therefore, these collectives not only do not fulfill assumed socialistic pledges, but even fail to fulfill the state plan.

The collecLives of the Orsk-Khalilov Combine, and the Dzerzhinsk, Krivorog, Azerbaydzhan Pipe, and Kommunarsk Coke-Chemical Plants are deeply in debt to the state. These installations failed in 196a to produce a considerable quantity of metal, sulfuric acid, mineral fertilizers, and toxic chemicals for agriculmre~ The following plants also failed to fill orders of the chemical industry during the past year: the Kommunarsk, Rustav, Krivorog, Nikopol Southern Pipe, and the II ' ieh Plant at Zhdanov.

Going into the final stage of the seven-year plan, Soviet Metallurgists are determined to fulfill the state plan for 1964-!965 ahead of time.

In answer to the challenge of the metallurgists of Moscow and Zaporozh'e and the Leningrad, Sverdlov, and Donets Districts, competition has developed at the Metallurgical installations for fulfillment of the plan for the sixth year of the seven-year plan ahead of schedule, for uninterrupted delivery of the necessary rolled and other metal items to the chemical machine-building plants, and for maximum utilization of reserves and capacities to increase the output of sulfuric acid, mineral fertilizers, raw materials, and by-products for the chemical industry.

Fulfillment of the pledges assumed by the collectives will surely require elevation of the level of work of the trade union committees and better exploitation by them of all forms and methods of organizational and training pro- jects for mobilization of the workers to strive toward discovering and utilizing all possible existing reserves. Correct supervision of socialistic competition means the ability to thoroughly and intelligently analyze the industrial activity of the installations, and correct evaluation of the sources of their economical functioning. Only under this condition can the trade union committees more effectively influence further growth in the production in ferrous metals, sulfuric acid, and mineral fertilizers and further increase in labor productivity and improvement in the quality indices of operation of the installations.

As serious shortcomings in the development of the chemical industry, the December Plenum of the CC of the CPSU noted the failure to realize capital investments made for building and reconstruction of chemical installations, intolerably slow equipping of several of the plants, lag in the periods required to realize planned capacities of the new and reconstructed plants, and planning defects. This applies both to the construction of chemical plants and to units set up at metallurgical installations.

The construction of chemical mills at the Nizhni Tagil Metallurgical Combine for fractionation, pyridine bases and precision chemistry was unjustifiably delayed; this also occurred at the Novolipets and Chelyabinsk Metal!urgical Plants. As a consequence, here the disproportion between production of chemical products and their treatment has not been eliminated.

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The economic plan for 1964-1965 as applies to metallurgical installations prescribes imroduction of new capacities for production of sulfuric acid, mineral fertilizers, and other chemical products. In this regard, the trade union committees should take practical measures to basically improve general control of the course of construction of these units. These should include creation and maintaining of control posts at each building site, achievement of rapid adoption of measures taken because of social indications in the matter of eliminating drawbacks in the course of construction, and assumption of control of providing the units under construction with financing, documen- tation, equipment, materials, a working force, and machines.

The important role of Soviet Science in the realization of the grandiose plans of the Party requires the trade union organizations to devote still more attention to collectives of scientific research and planning institutes and to further raise the level of operation of the scientific-technical branch of ferrous metallurgy.

In recent years at metallurgical installations various forms of active participation of the scientific and engi- neering-technical societies in supervision of production and solution of problems in technical progress have come to be widely practiced. Hundreds of general construction bureaus, bureaus for economical analysis, general laboratorie~ and other creative societies of workers have been created and are now functioning at metallurgical installations. They receive the participation of tens of thousands of workers-inventors, engineers, technicians, and scientific employees.

The task is to increase the role and activity of the organizations of the scientific-technical societies and the creative societies of workers in the solution of problems on accelerating the tempo of technical progress, improving the organization of production and labor, widely distributing and employing advance industrial experience, and ex- ercising general control on the introduction of new techniques and progressive technology in the metallurgical and

chemical industries.

Questions of improving workers' protection at active installations and at units under construction, observing the rules of industrial sanitation and safety engineering and of realizing the mechanization and automation of heavy, labor-intensive jobs should also be a source of unremitting concern to the trade union organizations.

Specific projects in the improvement of sanitary labor conditions have in recent years been carried through at installations of the metallurgical industry. However, a survey indicates that in many mills producing sulfuric acid, mineral fertilizers, and toxic chemicals the status of the questions of labor safety continues to remain unsatisfactory.

Increased demands must be made on industrial leaders with respect to questions of workers' protection, control of observation of the roles and norms of safety engineering and industrial sanitation must be made stronger, and mills with shortcomings with respect to workers' protection must not be allowed to go into operation.

"In devoting primary attention to the development of the chemical industry, n spoke comrade N. S. Khrnshchev, ~ e must not diminish our attention to the other branches of the national economy."

The plan for the development of the metallurgical industry in 1964-1965 prescribes raising production of iron to 65. 7 million tons, steel to 89. 3 million tons, and the production of roiled stock to 69. 0 million tons, Half of the planned increase in iron, 70% of the increase in steel, and 64% of the increase in roiled stock is intended for active installations for the intensification of industrial processes. Metallurgists are also faced with large tasks in improving the production of sulfuric acid, mineral fertilizers, toxic chemicals, and other chemical products.

Realization of this program requires the mobilization of all the energies of the workers, engineers, technicians, and scientific employees for the skillful utilization of all reserves and capacities.

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