Repair and Service Center in Vienna

= RUSZ

URL =

Description

by Ute Scheub:

"At the Repair and Service Center in Vienna, the long-term unemployed retrain to be "mechatronic engineers" and repair electronic devices. Founder Sepp Eisenriegler tirelessly initiates networks, projects, and cafés—all dedicated to the art of fixing things.

Dishwasher baskets. Washing machine drums. Shock absorbers. Electric motors. Fan belts. Radio tubes. Computer hard drives. Screws, screws, screws. In the basement of the Repair and Service Center (RUSZ) in Vienna’s district of Penzing, there are about 25,000 spare parts on more than 7,000 square feet, neatly sorted. The approximately 40 employees at RUSZ keep reaching for the shelves as they fix broken electronics.

In the middle of this technical jumble, Sepp Eisenriegler stands like a rock. He is 61 years old, wearing athletic clothing, confident. In a friendly, reverberating voice he explains that the operation he founded in 1998 "fixes machines as well as people." Formerly long-term unemployed or disabled workers train to become sought-after "mechatronic engineers." Radio mechanic Horst Skribek, for instance, "built in 1956," who restores old-fashioned radios. Or electrician Mahmut Hassan from Iraq, who fixes washing machines. At a customer’s request, the mostly male employees also perform repairs directly on site.

The atmosphere in the shop is friendly, the boss is popular, and they are currently drawing up their first Common Good Balance Sheet as proposed by the movement Economy for the Common Good. The remarkable record of RUSZ after 16 years: it placed 300 long-term unemployed workers in permanent work contracts, avoided about 15,000 tons of problematic waste as well as a huge amount of greenhouse gases, and heralded a renaissance of fixing things, at least in a section of society." (http://www.resilience.org/stories/2015-06-12/reviving-the-lost-art-of-fixing)