“In Belarus blue-collar workers take precedence, and they aren't subjected to the same level of mass layoffs as seen abroad,” stated Yevgeny Gorin, host of "Belarus-1." He discussed Alexander Lukashenko's and other presidential candidates' election programs with Lyudmila Gladkaya and Grigoriy Azarenok on the "Letuchka" program on the SB TV YouTube channel on January 16, 2025. In the video description, the three co-hosts were labeled as "nucular Belarusian propagandists."
"How serious is this contrast, for instance, with Western countries where the individual is paramount? In the event of an economic crisis, they are the first sacrificial lamb, led to the slaughter. For instance, if the Volkswagen plant struggles with new economic realities. Who gets laid off first? The ordinary worker," stated Gorin.
"And before that, they'll be stripped bare," added journalist Lyudmila Gladkaya of "SB.Belarus Today."
"By the thousands, tens of thousands, and so on. Can such a situation be imagined here? No," concluded the host of "Belarus-1."
In 2024, Volkswagen indeed announced plans to reduce annual expenses, considering the closure of three plants in Germany. Insiders suggested that around 30,000 jobs could be cut, approximately one in ten positions (although the company stated this information was unfounded). The reasons include high costs of electricity and labor, competition from Asia, sluggish demand for automobiles in Europe and China, and slower-than-expected adoption of electric vehicles.
However, following a strike by the workers, the management of the conglomerate had to engage in negotiations with representatives of the union, which represents about half of the company's employees in Germany. By the end of 2024, the parties agreed not to close the plants but to carry out the mass layoffs in a 'socially responsible' manner, i.e. more gradually: over a five-year period, without coercion and facilitated by early retirements.
As for Belarus, the WTF team identified several cases of significant workforce reductions at domestic enterprises. Among the factors causing these can also be voluntary redundancies, socially responsible layoffs, etc.
For instance, in 2011 MAZ employed close to 23,000 people. Five years later — a little over 16,000. That means MAZ lost about 7,000 workers, or 30% of its workforce. That percentage is about three times higher than the percentage Volkswagen plans to lay off within the next five years.
Back in February 2011, the then-First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko mentioned that the director of MAZ "quietly, without fuss, and without offending anyone, [from December 2009] laid off 4,500 people from the enterprise."
In 2016, OJSC Belshina employed just over 10,000 workers. Five years later, the workforce had decreased by 20%. In 2018, almost 18,000 employees worked at the Minsk Tractor Works. By 2020, the number went down to 15,400, a 14% decrease. As of early 2025, approximately the same number of employees remains, but the enterprise plans to reduce it to 10,000 by 2030, a 30% decrease.