Russian Enterprises Now Discussing Whether They are Paying Workers Enough to Keep Them from Going to War, Buketov Says

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Mar. 20 – Confronted by a situation in which Russian men are being offered enormous sums to join the army to fight in Putin’s war in Ukraine, numerous Russian enterprises are now discussing among themselves whether they are paying workers enough to keep them from doing do, according to Kirill Buketov.
    The longtime veteran of labor union activity in the last decades of the USSR and the first one of the Russian Federation who has lived in Switzerland for the last 20 years makes this and a number of other important observations about Russian labor unions and politics (novayagazeta.eu/articles/2025/03/23/sistema-profsoiuzov-perestroilas-pod-voennye-nuzhdy).
    Among the most notable of these are the following;
•    In the 1990s, the Russian labor movement failed to become a political forces not only because most workers thought politics a dirty business they didn’t want to get involved with but also and perhaps even more because those favoring the democratic development of the country failed to attend to the workers, leaving them to the KPRF and Stalinists.
•    There is a serious danger that those now talking about “the beautiful Russia of the future” are continuing this tradition. They need to change and start focusing on the Russian working class and the country’s traditions of unionism.
•    There are far more labor actions in Russia than Rosstat is reporting because it limits its strike count to actions taken by registered unions and ignores steps taken that involve less than an entire enterprise. In fact, the number of actions more broadly defined has remained far higher than Moscow acknowledges.