FEATURE-Metal workers face job cuts in Russia's Urals

(Repeats story first published on Monday)

By Natalya Shurmina

YEKATERINBURG, Russia, Dec 22 (Reuters) - 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."