ORGANIZING AND PUBLICIZING SOCIALIST COMPETITIONS AT THE SEMILUKSK REFRACTORIES FACTORY B. K. Dolgopolov
UDC 658.387.64:666.76~001.8
The resolutions of the Twenty-Fourth and Twenty-Fifth Congresses of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union reflected the Leninist course toward an undeviating rise in the material and cultural standards of living of the nation, which is the highest long-term aim and main purpose of the economic strategy of the Party. The socioeconomic progress of society largely depends on getting high labor productivity levels and keeping time. Therefore, from the very beginning of building a new society in our country the rise in labor productivity has been seen as the most important economic task. One of the main methods of achieving such increases in socialist production is to encourage mass socialist competitions and to spread far and wide the latest experience. Extensive use of socialist competitions have enabled workers at the Semiluksk Refractories Factory in the last 12 years to double the output of each worker (see Table I)o Even more enthusiasm has gone into the socialist competitions at the factory in reply to the Letter of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the VTsSPS and the Central Committee of VLKSM, "The Development of Socialist Competition to Fulfil and Exceed the 1978 Plan and Reinforce the Drive for Increasing the Effectiveness of Production and Wore Quality." At the present time, the actual conditions governing the competitions of workers, departmental collectives, mines, sections, shifts, and brigades for 1978 specify the following forms of competition at the factory: competition for the honor of "Collective of Communist Work" and "Shockworker of Communist Work"; an interdepartmental competition for the first place and the leading Red Banner awarded by the administration, party, trade union, and Komsomol committee among the various departments; intradepartmental competition for members, shifts and brigades; a competition among sections responsible for capital building; an intrafactory competition among workshops and mines attached to the factory; competitions for the title of "Best worker in the trade," "Best worker in the factory," "Best trainer of young people," "Best young worker," "Best factory foreman," "Work veteran at the factory," "Best department for rationalization and inventiveness," "Best creative brigade," "Best factory rationalizer," "Best young rationalizer in the factory," "Best department for work safety and safety-techniques," competitions with the Borovich Refractories Combine, and competitions with the Novolipetsk Metallurgical Factory (a neighboring concern). In order to create identical conditions for each collective, all the shops and mines are divided into three groups, and three leading Red Banners are set up by the directors, party, trade-union, and Komsomol committees which are awarded to the winners of the competitions. Pennants are awarded to encourage the collectives of shi~ts~ brigades, and the best workers; and certificates for the foremen. The preliminary results are published each month at local management meetings and in department trade-union committee sessions; the final results are considered and confirmed at an extended session of the management and the factory trade-unions committee. A "Day of Socialist Competition" has been set aside in order to publicize the results of the competitions and reward the winners at the factory. The awards are made at the general assemblies with due solemnity in the Halls of Culture of the factory, the mines, and at the club of the Latnensk Refractories Division. Concerts are given in honor of the winners, involving amateurs and professionals, and film shows are organized. According to the work results for the longest periods, the production leaders are awarded orders and medals of the Soviet Union, the titles "Winner in Socialist Competitions," and Semiluksk Refractories Factory.
Translated from Ogneupory, No. 12, pp. 4-7, December,
1978. 738
0034-3102/78/1112-0738507.50
9 1979 Plenum Publishing Corporation
TABLE i. Rate of Growth of Labor Productivity at the Semiluksk Refractories Factory Labor productivity, qo compared with Years previous
year 1965 1970 1.975 1976 1977
I00,0 106,8 106,0 105,3 100,6
1965 lO0,O 138,6 186,7 196,6 197,8
"Shockworker for the Five Year Plan," etc. The factory now employs two Heroes of Socialist Work (walking,beam excavator driver I. V. Makarov end refractories setter V. F. Kryukova), 177 holders of the Order of Lenin, October Revolution, Worker's Red Star, "Sign of Honor," Worker's honor third class, more than 2000 people who have received the title "Winner of Socialist Competition," 350 shockworkers of the five-year plan, many recipients of the title "Outstanding person in the socialistcompetitions in the iron and steel industry of the USSR," Diploma of the Ministry of Iron and Steel Industry of the USSR" end Trade Unions of the Iron and Steel Industry, and other awards. To improve socialist competitions the factory has arranged shockworkers ! watches: "30-Yr Victory-- 30 shockworking weeks," "Twenty-Fifth Congress of the Party -- 25Shock Weeks." At present the third year is recognized by a working watch for the Tenth Five-Year Plan, A com~ petition staff has been appointed containing representatives of social bodies, production leaders, and workers from the economic-services sections. Every Monday the staff examines the results of the various subdivisions for the previous week, and decide the winners. The winning collectives (four groups) are honored by raising red flags on theflag~poles , trans~ missions are put out on the factory radio, notices put up on the hoards, and other forms of publicity are used. The factory staff controls the work of the departmental and mlning staffs in charge of the competitions, and every day determine the winners of the competitions among the shiftsp brigades, and workers of the leading trades. Just like a money-lender, our factory this year has developed competitions under the heading "Work without stopping." Some 27 shops, 20 sections, 122 shifts, 253 hrlgades and all the workers have entered for this competition. Every 10 days the laggard collectives are identified and measures raised to overcome the backwardness. In 6 months of the current year all the departments and sections were working without stopping; 88.5% shifts, 96.4% brigades, and 99.6% of the factoryls workers, As a result of the socialist competitions in 2.5 years of the Tenth Five-Year Plan, without increasing the number of production workers, the vol[~e of gross production has risen by 9.6%, and labor productivity by 10.3%. The factory collective is successfully tackling its tasks end socialist responsibilities for 1978. The plan for product sales for the first 9 months was exceeded hy 1.5%, for gross production by 2.8%, and labor productivity 2.1%. Due to the enhanced socialist undertakings by the collective of workers, engineers, technicians, and clerical staff, the factory has provided the following increases compared withd~e planned figures: gross production 860,000 rubles, volume of sales 600,000 rubles, extra profits up to 200,000 rubles, and labor productivity 0.3%. It was intended to make an extra 1800 tons of high-alumlna products, to mine 45~000tons of fireclays above the target, to save 1.5 million kW-h of electricity and 3000 tons of standard fuel, and to obtain savings of 550,000 rubles as a result of rationalist proposals and technical improvements.
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As a matter of fact, during the first 9 months of 1978 the gross-production rise was 1,280,000 rubles, and sales volume 675,000 rubles above the targets. Profit above the planned levels reached 307,000 rubles. Labor productivity was 2.1% higher than planned. Outputs of refractory products were 1600 tons, and fireclays 47,500 tons above the targets. The factory also saved 1,760,000 kW-h of electricity, and 3070 tons of standard fuel. Savings worth 567,000 rubles resulted from rationalization and the use of better techniques. In the All-Union socialist competitions among iron and steel enterprises, during the first and second quarters of this year the factory received the leading Red Banner of the Ministry and Trade Unions and a first monetary prize. The factory's production leaders achieved outstanding results in the competitions. On the eve of the first anniversary of the new Constitution of the USSR, 1505 people completed the 3-yr assignments, among them press operator R. A. Kulakova, grader T. M. Yagodkina, loader O. S. Glukhova, and setter P. I. Zhdanova, and others. The assignments for the 3 years of the five-year plan were completed by 82 shifts and brigades, among them A. A. Borozdinovafs shift, a team of setters headed by V. F. Guseva, who is a member of the Central Committee of the Trade Unions for the iron and steel industry, and others. The greatest working successes were achieved by our renowned women-toilers who completed the five-year tasks in good time. The first among these was Herdine of Socialist Work Valentina Fedorovna Kryukova, a setter in workshop No. 4, who completed the task for the 5 years in 2 years 7 months and 8 days. On this occasion a meeting was called in the shop. In her address at the meeting Valentina Fedorovna said she had studied all the subtleties of her trade, her products were not checked by the control and measurement staff; she loved her work veryTmuch, her job contained elements of creativity, and she herself was developing a method of placing the bricks. By the end of 1980 V. F. Kryukova is hoping to complete another personal five-year assignment~ Following V. F. Kryukova came L. I. Minina and A. I. Trepalina who work as graders and who completed their five-year tasks early. Socialist competitions in this factory are becoming more extensive. The collective of the Semiluksk Refractories Factory is quite determined to complete the shock assignments for 1978, and to construct a strong foundation for the work of 1979.
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