The residents there, although aware there is little they can do to change the manufacturer's mind, will at first try to protest the lay-offs.
"I don't think people will be smashing shop windows ... I think they have already decided what to do. If it becomes too tough, they will block the M5 highway," a Tolyatti mayor's office official was quoted as saying by the source.
AvtoVAZ trade union also plans to fight, as much as they can, the massive job cuts. "We will find instruments ... to force the employer to agree with our arguments ... There are different strikes, including sit-ins for example. This is when people come to work and don't go home," Pyotr Zolotaryov, the union's leader said.
Meanwhile, to a more personal level, individual workers brace for the worst. Some of them have even began to fear they will not get laid-off, but killed by the ones that did.
"What if, for example, I'm not fired and my redundant mate, who stood beside me on the assembly line, 'greets' me at my front door as he knows I'm still getting money?" Afanasyev, a 50-year old worker said. "It could get really ugly."
According to the announcement made by AvtoVAZ, half of those to be laid off are pensioners and are expected to leave in September and October, with an extra "nearly-retired" workers to join them. The second wave of restructuring will come in 2012, when no less than 9,100 younger workers will be asked to leave.
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