Metal workers in the industrial cities of the Ural mountains were the elite of the working class when prices were at record highs this year. Now, they worry about how they will feed their families and meet bank repayments as employers, crippled by the sharp drop in demand delivered by the global financial crisis, prepare to slash one fifth of the workforce in Sverdlovsk region next year. "The only way to survive is to search for additional wages. I'm looking for such work day and night. I'm ready to work as a taxi driver, or a waiter," said 32-year-old metals worker Vitaly Chuvakov. The Ural mountains, which divide Europe and Asia, are home to many of Russia's Soviet-era metallurgical giants. Entire cities still depend on the plants for their livelihood, making them particularly vulnerable to any sharp cut in production. Russia's $200 billion-plus rescue package for the economy has done little here to ease fears that mass job cuts will be necessary. The financial crisis has brought construction and auto projects -- major consumers of steel -- to a halt. "About 100,000 jobs, mainly at metallurgical plants, are forecast to be cut next year," Andrei Vetluzhskikh, chairman of the Sverdlovsk regional trades union federation, told Reuters. "We expect job cuts in the metallurgical sector could amount to as much as 20 percent of the entire workforce, while production volumes are expected to drop by up to 40 percent." Metal workers, who earned an average 25,000-30,000 roubles ($902-1,082) per month before the crisis, about 40 percent more than the national average, are concerned they will be unable to repay bank loans taken out in more prosperous times. "Almost everybody has bought a car on credit and many have taken out mortgages," said Sergei, a 35-year-old metallurgical worker in the Sverdlovsk region that surrounds Yekaterinburg. He declined to give his surname or identify his employer for fear of reprisals. "Such are the times: people don't want to be found out for their openness outside the factory gates." ROOSEVELT'S METHODS Chelyabinsk region, which borders Sverdlovsk to the south, is faring no better. About 20,000 of its 1.7 million working-age population, or 1.2 percent, are registered unemployed and further cuts are expected in January and February. "About 7,000 people have already been warned of forthcoming redundancies," said Leonid Shusharin, the administration's head of labour and employment in a region that accounts for more than 30 percent of Russia's total steel output.

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