Demise of Social State in Russia Seen Opening the Door to More Independent Union Activity

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 30 – Because of their experiences with state-controlled unions, most Russians do not believe that unions currently play an effective role, but more than half tell VTsIOM that they believe unions could do so and even defend their interests now that the government is reducing its role as a social state.

            Ever more analysts are discussing this possibility, and some opposition figures like Aleksey Navalny have even taken steps to form unions that would play the role they do in Western democracies rather than the one they have played in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia up to now.

            A major problem is this: while 30 percent of working-age Russians are members of unions, many of them understand the role of these institutions on the basis of what they have done in the past rather than in terms of what unions could do if they performed as they do elsewhere. As a result, expressions of interest in unions in Russia today are hard to evaluate.

            At present, there are essentially two broad categories of unions in Russia: the traditional ones which cooperate closely with the state and business in the name of stability, and independently formed ones that challenge both. The former is dominant, but the latter is growing  (russian.eurasianet.org/россия-нехватка-социальных-гарантий-пробудила-интерес-к-профсоюзам).

            The latter type of unions traces its origins to the worker protests of perestroika times.  Often they called themselves “free” or “new” to set them apart from the official unions.  Most have faded, but one that has not is the Worker Association at a Volkswagen plant which has as its members more than a third of the workers there. Traditional unions have the rest.

            In January 2018, the government liquidated the opposition union organization MPRA as “a foreign agent.” But subsequently, the Supreme Court overruled that decision; and the union resumed operation. Unfortunately, this history cost it many of its members. But its democratic style of self-governance is attracting people back.

            Most new trade unions are now part of the Confederation of Labor of Russia, which claims two million members. Like the traditional union organization, it gets subsidies from the labor ministry; but unlike the traditional one, the CLR frequently opposes the government, including on the raising of the pension age.

            Oleg Babich, head of the CLR’s legal department, points out that “to create a trade union, only three people are needed, and it is even possible to avoid legal registration.” But any group which tries to do so faces pressure from employers and discrimination. But to show that in a Russian court is “practically impossible.”

            In three recent years (2015-2017), the Moscow Center for Social-Labor Rights recorded 165 cases of such pressure on CLR unions. The courts supported only 24 of them; in all other cases, the judicial authorities backed the employers.  Moreover, strikes are typically illegal, but stronger unions can engage in them. Hence the desire to strangle unions in their infancy.

            But union organizers say that the biggest problem they face is the paternalism that Russians have internalized, the belief that those in power will take care of them.  But as it becomes more obvious that the authorities won’t perform that way, the activists say, ever more Russians are considering unions as a way to defend their rights.