International Institute for Labour Studies
P.O. Box 6, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland
Public Lecture Series
Perestroika and the trade unions
in the USSR
Gennadii Yanaev
Deputy Chairman
All Union Central Council
of Trade Unions of the USSR
Geneva, 26 February 1990
Perestroika (restructuring) in the Soviet Union is now approaching the end of its
fifth year. Step by step, we have come closer to realising more fully what kind of society
we are aiming for and hence to a fairly clear idea of what we are doing. If, at first, we
thought it was merely a matter of eliminating certain defects in the social fabric, of
improving the system which had taken shape in the previous decades, we now talk of the
need for a radical transformation of our entire social structure, from the economic
foundations to the superstructure. The idea underlying the processes now under way in
the USSR is that of a transition to a new model of socialist society, one which is more
democratic and humane and corresponds better to universal concepts of kindness and
justice.
In this context, a wide range of measures is currently under way to reform
property ownership; the economy and the political system; and to change the spiritual
and moral climate of society.
The positive changes which have occurred since the beginning of perestroika are
obvious. Most important is the fact that these processes have made people more
politically active, and have prompted them to participate directly in solving urgent
problems. People are enhancing their civic dignity - their sense of their own worth and
their faith in themselves having been restored by perestroika. The human dimension is
coming into its own in our country's spiritual life and in our domestic and international
politics.
A giant step has been taken on the path towards democratisation and glasnost
(openess). The shape of state power has changed and the foundations have been laid
for a socialist State governed by the rule of law.
Major structural transformations have taken place in the economy which is being
reoriented towards the solution of social problems.
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We are now on the threshold of the second stage of political reform which will
culminate in the setting up of a system of government by the people and the restoring
of power to the Soviets.
However, it should be pointed out that the radical economic, social and spiritual
transformations envisaged by perestroika are a complex and contradictory process.
Workers are not happy today with the rate at which perestroika is proceeding and
especially with the incomplete and half-hearted way in which economic reform is being
carried out. At various levels of management, every pretext is being used to delay the
transition to new forms of management, cost-accounting and self-management, and to
flout the legitimate rights of work collectives.
Workers and their families are the hardest hit by the imbalance in the circulation
of money and the consumer market, the growing shortage of essential goods, increasingly
acute food and housing problems, abuses in the co-operative movement, unbridled
speculation and the spread of crime.
In other words, the results of perestroika have yet to fulfill the soviet people's
hopes of a change for the better.
Social tensions are being exacerbated by the erosion of spiritual values, and a
decline in discipline at work and in morality among a part of the population. The flareup of ethnic strife is especially alarming.
These circumstances are marked by a growing crisis of faith in social and political
structures, including the trade unions. The conviction is spreading among workers that
they have been deprived of real means of influencing social and economic decisionmaking and supervising compliance with such decisions. All of this prompted the
working class, for the first time in the years at perestroika, to take up the struggle on
their own for their social and economic rights and interests. The country was literally
shaken by massive miners' strikes and by disputes in several other branches and regions.
The present social and political situation in our country has forced us to take a
fresh look at the place and role of the trade unions in soviet society.
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At the Sixth Plenary Meeting of the Ail-Union Central Council of Trade Unions
(AUCCTU), held in September 1989, the trade unions declared that they were an
independent social force with a clearly defined programme of action for the protection
of workers' interests.
In the current new conditions, the soviet trade unions are
becoming independent of political organisations and state, economic and administrative
bodies. They exercise independence and autonomy by adopting and implementing their
platforms for practical activities, proposing alternative programmes, and assuming the
right to initiate legislation, to elect their executive bodies and officers without
interference and patronage from any body whatsoever, and by expressing disagreement
with the decisions of those state, economic and other bodies which flout workers'
legitimate rights and interests.
It goes without saying that at any specific moment in history, the priorities of the
most widespread public organisation of workers can and must be changed in order to
adapt them to particular features of social development.
There has been a particularly abrupt change in the circumstances in which our
country's trade union organisations now find themselves. The introduction of cost
accounting and self-financing, of market relations and leasing arrangements, cooperatives, and the setting up of enterprises with the participation of foreign capital
undoubtedly give enterprises far greater economic autonomy and help to increase the
efficiency of production.
However, these same new forms of management are
accompanied in many cases (especially in the transition phase) by numerous negative
effects which run counter to the interests of both manual and non-manual workers.
The new conditions meant that the soviet trade unions had to redefine the range
of activities in which they must take a primary role. The defence of workers' legitimate
interests was recognised as their main activity, to which the greatest priority should be
accorded. It was in this area that the restructuring of the trade unions' activity was
begun.
The priority issues defined by the Sixth Plenary Meeting of the AUCCTU
included the following:
greater attention should be paid by trade union bodies at all levels to
remuneration and material incentives, to the elimination of distortions in the
current system of remuneration and imbalances in the introduction of new wage
and salary rates;
working conditions and occupational safety and health should be improved, and
the trade unions must make greater demands on economic managers, ministries
and departments in dealing with these matters;
the trade unions should play a greater role in matters relating to employment,
price fixing, and the social and legal protection of workers and their families (the
provision of housing, medical care and everyday services, etc.);
the trade unions should pay far greater attention to poor families;
greater emphasis should be placed on the most important means by which trade
union organisations can exercise their role as defenders of workers' interests, i.e.
collective agreements, and - in the case of leaseholding collectives and cooperatives at branch and regional levels - agreements and social contracts.1
The AUCCTU now actively exercises its right to initiate legislation and submits
specific proposals to state management bodies aimed at ensuring that the workers'
legitimate demands are met. It is extremely significant that, for the first time since
soviet rule began, the trade unions have been given the firm place they deserve in
Parliament.
At its autumn session, our country's parliament examined 35 major issues of state.
A considerable number were adopted taking trade union demands into account.
Thus, in the national economic and social development plan for 1990, the share
of resources allocated to current consumption and non-production construction was
increased from 78-79 to 86.7 per cent. Moreover, it is planned to increase this share to
A type of agreement.
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89-90 per cent in the next few years. Parliament adopted important measures on which
the trade unions also insisted, such as an increase in the minimum pension, and
advantages for women and other population groups. A great deal of work was done on
the Bill on pensions and vacations, both of which the Supreme Soviet approved after a
first reading and published for nation-wide discussion.
At the initiative of the
AUCCTU, the Act on the examination of collective labour disputes was adopted. The
workers and the trade unions now have a procedure laid down in the legislation for the
protection of their interests, that includes strikes, once all other means have been
exhausted. This is an important social achievement and marks the advent of a new State
committed to the rule of law. Proposals were submitted to the Supreme Soviet for an
Act on the settlement of individual labour disputes, which should at last guarantee
reliable protection of the right to work of all categories of soviet workers without
exception.
The trade unions were duty-bound, as defenders of workers' interests, to issue a
clear denunciation of the growth of speculation in many sectors of the economy, and of
abuses in the co-operative movement.
Our specific proposals regarding this acute
problem received convincing support in the Orders of the Supreme Soviet adopted by
an overwhelming majority of votes.
Having carefully analysed the situation on the consumer market, at its Sixth
Plenary Meeting, the AUCCTU adopted a declaration in which it set forth the trade
union position regarding the main sore points for society and expressed the utmost
concern at the worsening shortage of consumer goods, uncontrolled price increases, the
disappearance of inexpensive products and the frequent decline in the quality of such
goods.
The workers' worsening material situation was enough in itself to warrant the
adoption of urgent measures. But this problem became even more acute after the
Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted, at the Government's suggestion, the Order of
progressive taxation of the wage fund. This means that as of October 1989, when the
order on taxation entered into force, until the end of 1990, a limit is imposed on
increases in workers' income.
It may well be that
in the current exceptional
circumstances, such temporary extraordinary measures are necessary to stabilise the
circulation of money. However, we are fully aware of the fact that, in the first place,
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this measure seriously hampers the development of new forms of management and
leaseholding and delays the increase in the production of goods necessary to the country,
especially in branches at the forefront of scientific and technological progress. In the
second place, along with uncontrolled price increases, this could deal a severe blow to
the standard of living of millions of people. In the face of these stringent restrictions
on income, the trade unions were compelled to raise the question of equally stringent
measures to freeze prices over the same period.
It is highly significant that the Supreme Soviet and the Government paid careful
attention to this declaration. The instruments adopted by them have taken into account
all of the trade unions' main proposals. Legislation has been enacted listing essential
goods for which prices have been frozen until the end of 1990.
Prompted by their concern to protect consumers, the trade unions proposed that
limits be placed on the retail prices of fruit and vegetables, that the market be saturated
with the goods and medicines that are in shortest supply, and that restrictions be placed
on the export abroad of manufactured products and food of which there is a shortage
in the USSR. Judging from the reactions to it, this Order of the Supreme Soviet was
also warmly welcomed by the public.
The success of the planned nation-wide reforms depends to a great extent on how
effectively they are implemented at the local level. We therefore consider that the
coming elections to Republic-level and local bodies will have a decisive impact on the
country's future, on all workers and on the trade unions.
The trade unions attach a great deal of importance to strong and powerful Soviets
expressing the will of all sectors of the population. Working together with such
authoritative partners, the trade unions will be better able to carry out all the tasks
facing them.
We feel that self-government at the local level will make it possible to deal
independently with all matters relating to the social and economic development of the
area, protection of the environment, and the exercise of citizens' rights and freedoms.
The trade unions, playing an active part in the Soviets and working with them, will have
real opportunities to solve such serious problems as the provision of housing, food and
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consumer goods, the organisation of public catering, the arrangement of leisure time and
improvement of people's health.
It should be borne in mind that the workers' interests are served in two areas: at
work, that is through the work collectives, and in the locality where they live, that is
though the local Soviets. In this respect, contradictions are appearing even now. What
may happen is that in some places departmental diktat may be supplemented or replaced
by that handed down by the local Soviets, which will lead to a certain amount of tension
in relations between the work collectives and the Soviets. The trade unions are equally
interested in developments in the production and social spheres. They can make a real
contribution to improving co-operation between the Soviets and work collectives.
Thus, the trade unions' involvement in the system of local self-government and
their use of the new opportunities afforded to the Soviets are, on the one hand, an
indispensable condition for the successful functioning of the trade unions themselves and,
on the other, an important factor in ensuring smooth relations between enterprises and
the Soviets of people's deputies.
Working from these assumptions, at the Seventh Plenary Meeting of the
AUCCTU, held at the beginning of December 1989, the trade unions put forward their
pre-election platform and defined their strategy for participating in the pre-election
campaign.
The platform centres on workers and their concerns, needs and problems. The
trade unions have decided to adopt a slogan that is familiar and understandable to
workers: "Land to the peasants, factories to the workers and power to the Soviets."
The trade unions announced their determination to speed up economic reform,
which will serve as a basis for developing the autonomy of work collectives and all forms
of production relations. The pre-election platform sets out the trade unions' position
on such acute problems as the elimination of shortages on the domestic market, the
provision of food, consumer goods and services to the population, the struggle against
inflation, the prevention of inexpensive goods disappearing from the market and the
construction of housing.
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During the pre-election campaign, the trade unions intend to take a firm stand
on ecology issues, protection of the environment and working conditions in enterprises.
Twenty per cent of the population lives in ecological disaster areas. There are many
factory sections and shops where working conditions are unacceptable. In particular,
we have decided to support the position of the trade unions of Moscow and Yaroslavl
regions which have committed themselves to guaranteeing to the workers that it will be
prohibited to commission production units or design workstations and equipment which
fail to comply strictly with state standards on occupational safety and environmental
protection.
In putting forward the trade unions' pre-election platform and supporting
perestroika, we proceed from the assumption that no economic transformation should
run counter to workers' basic interests or encroach on their standard of living.
The trade unions' position is that economic reform must go hand-in-hand with the
provision of guarantees to protect working people from its possible unfavourable
consequences, especially when manual and non-manual workers are released from
material production. Approximately three million persons have already been released
in the past three years. Up to now, it has been possible to go through this process more
or less painlessly.
However, it will be intensified with the development of new
management methods, the conversion of military production, the reduction of the
number of construction projects and the advance of scientific and technological progress.
It is already clear that the nation-wide placement system is incapable of taking
prompt action to protect the population from unemployment, and of creating the
necessary conditions for the placement of certain categories of persons, especially
handicapped workers, young people and women.
In several regions of the country, unemployment has already become a reality and
has brought with it many negative phenomena causing social tensions. If we began
perestroika in the interests of human beings and not at their expense, problems relating
to their employment, improvement of skills, and timely assistance in obtaining retraining,
must be given prompt attention both at the state and at the local level, in full
observance of social guarantees. The trade unions categorically reject any attempts to
justify theoretically the possibility or even the necessity of unemployment in our country.
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All of this calls for the immediate setting up of a nation-wide programme to
combat unemployment as part of the reform. The AUCCTU put forward proposals on
this matter at the session of the USSR Supreme Soviet and submitted them to the
Government. During the Second Congress of the People's Deputies, held in December
1989, the trade unions again drew attention to this problem.
Special attention is give in the trade unions' pre-election campaign, to the
protection of the interests of young persons, who make up over 30 million of their
members. Youth problems are multiplied by the difficulties the country is undergoing
and are becoming increasingly serious. Completely new and stringent demands are
being made on young people by cost accounting, leasing and structural changes in the
economy. There are more young people among the jobless. The task facing the trade
unions is to propose specific programmes of action on the entire range of youth
problems, taking into account the particular characteristics of each region of the country.
Mindful of the fact that in several areas of our country considerable tensions have
flared up in relations between ethnic groups, we have given special attention to this issue
in the pre-election campaign. The trade unions have taken an internationalist stand for
the full normalisation of relations between ethnic groups and against any attempts to
split work collectives and regions on the grounds of ethnic differences and to break
down the union of sovereign republics and friendship between our peoples. At the same
time, we consider it necessary to create a truly new socialist federation whose very
structure as well as the nature of relations between members of the federation would
guarantee the preservation and development of each people, enabling them to work
together on an equal footing for the common good and common aims, within the
framework of a united Soviet State.
In the process of perestroika, the soviet trade unions are gaining new strength
and playing a more active part in the political system of our society.
The reorientation of the trade unions' activity, which, incidentally, we predicted,
has not been to everyone's liking. There is a growing number of critics of the trade
unions who attempt to "put them in their place". Such criticism comes both from the
right and from the left. It comes, on the one hand, from partisans of the former
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administrative system who miss the command methods of management and who would
like to have obedient and silent trade unions, and on the other, from pseudo-radicals of
all kinds. The latter proclaim themselves the ardent defenders of the people's interests
but in fact they propose ways out of the crisis which, in practice, run counter to the
interests of the people, or measures which the workers do not accept.
No sooner had the AUCCTU demanded that the Government of the USSR and
the Councils of Ministers of the Union Republics curb the growing shortage of essential
goods and the increase in prices and provide for compensation of inflation, than the
trade unions were showered with accusations of playing up to the most backward
elements of the working class and fostering narrow mindedness, an "I'm all right Jack"
attitude.
When the AUCCTU demanded that central and local state bodies adopt urgent
measures to protect the co-operative movement from market speculators, the trade
unions were branded as opponents of the co-operatives, in other words, opponents of
perestroika.
In October 1989, the AUCCTU addressed an open letter to workers employed
in trade, rail and road transport, and maritime and inland ports, and to collectives in
enterprises and organisations, calling upon them to take decisive and effective action to
establish order in transport and trade, together with economic managers. The trade
unions' critics accused them of raising trivial questions.
The trade unions upheld the demands of striking miners and insisted on the
adoption of an Act on the procedure for settling collective labour disputes. Again they
were reproached: supporting strikes is tantamount to opposing perestroika.
Obviously, our critics both on the right and on the left have no use for strong and
independent trade unions. To both of them we say: there is no going back. This is the
stand we have taken as a matter of principle and we intend to follow it through.
We have drawn another conclusion from the criticism of the trade unions: people
need to be kept more fully and widely informed of what the trade unions are doing,
what issues they are dealing with and what specific results this will have for the workers.
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To this end, we are expanding our own news media and are striving to make better use
of the central and local press and television. The first issues of the trade union
newspaper have already been published in ten regions. Trade union information centres
(press centres) are being set up everywhere in the trade union councils at the republic,
territorial and regional levels.
Noticeable changes are taking place in the activities of the Soviet trade unions.
Every trade union organisation is now undergoing a serious, one could even say political,
test of workers' confidence.
It should also be pointed out, however, that some trade union committees are
slow in recovering from the old diseases of formalism, sluggishness and ineffectiveness
in defending the rights and legitimate interests of working people. Where trade unions
continue to function in the old way, they fail to take the initiative and so lose authority.
It is this passivity which often leads to the creation of parallel structures which make
social demands and defend the workers. It often happens that the people who rally
round trade union slogans are the least concerned about strengthening the workers'
movement or about people's basic needs. These forces usually pursue ambitious,
mercenary aims.
The Sixth Plenary Meeting of the AUCCTU referred to above examined a
number of proposals for the further improvement of organisational work and the rules
for trade union activities. In particular, we considered it necessary:
to ensure that trade union committees are regularly injected with new blood in
the form of workers and activists enjoying the greatest confidence and authority
within their work collectives;
for the highest-level trade union bodies to refrain from laying down strict rules
for the activity of trade unions and from adopting arbitrary decisions with respect
to them;
to enhance the trade unions' interest and responsibility in the setting up and
functioning of trade union bodies;
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to grant more extensive rights to branch-level councils of trade union committee
chairmen, up to the level of regional trade union committees, in their relations
with economic bodies;
to allow trade unions, at their request and on a trial basis, to form higher-level
trade union bodies according to the principle of direct delegation;
in view of the excessively broad framework of the branch-level trade union in
which the interests of individual occupations are often lost sight of, even when
such occupations number a great many workers, to give workers the opportunity
of forming associations based on the interests of specific occupational groups;
to adopt new approaches to the formation of the trade union budget and the state
social insurance budget;
to set up a council of trade unions of the Russian Republic (RSFSR);
to begin drafting new regulations of trade unions in the USSR.
We have drawn very serious conclusions on matters of principle from the massive
workers' strikes. According to the information at our disposal, in 1988 and 1989 strikes
occurred in 40 regions, territories and autonomous and union republics, in enterprises
in the coal and iron and steel industries, road transport, industrial construction material
and a number of other sectors.
An analysis of these events shows that the main causes of the strikes were
dissatisfaction with labour organisations, neglect of the social sphere, material difficulties
and the lack of economic autonomy of enterprises and regions.
The situation in work collectives was further exacerbated by gross violations of
the regulations in force concerning remuneration, including pay for night and evening
shifts, in applying new wage rates, etc. People are tired of working year after year on
"black Saturdays" without the same days off as everybody else.
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All of these issues have been examined on several occasions in various economic
and trade union bodies. However, both the local authorities and the ministries have
failed to keep most of their promises. Social tensions gradually worsened and the
authority of the trade unions and defenders of the workers declined. The workers
preferred to voice their protest against gross violations of social justice and the arbitrary
acts of management not through their trade unions but through strike committees.
We have no reason to place all of the blame for this on the trade union
committees alone. It was a sign of how far the trade unions and their activities lagged
behind the transformations taking place in the country, behind the higher requirements
which succeeded past habits of following orders from above, of their willingness to be
satisfied with half-measures and to see things yet again from the point of view of
management, branch directors or the Government. The trade unions accommodated
themselves, so to speak, to the administrative economic system. To a certain extent, this
was made possible by the wide variety of trade union functions, the lack of clearly
defined limits to their responsibility and the obligation thrust upon them to participate
in everything everywhere.
The conclusions drawn from the strikes were taken into account in the decisions
of the last two plenary meetings of the AUCCTU and the situation is now clearly
changing for the better. In many places, trade union bodies are being formed according
to the new principle of delegation and branch and occupational associations are being
set up. Many well-respected leaders of work collectives, including representatives of
strike committees and workers' committees, have joined trade union committees.
Primary organisations are becoming more autonomous, squaring their shoulders so to
speak, and shrugging off ill-fitting roles. The trade unions' voice is now heard at all
levels. We are clearly on the right road.