1. Nuremberg Conference 8-9 October 2012 Tim Pringle
Agency and institutional reform in Russia, China and Vietnam: Wither the trade unions?
Nuremberg Conference 8-9 October 2012
Tim Pringle

2. Transition to capitalist employment relations
Transition from state to capitalist/permanent to contractual employment
Transition from state welfare to social insurance
Large lay-offs from SOEs – privatisation
China and Vietnam: massive growth of private and foreign-owned enterprises employing migrant workers on low wages, short or no contracts, long hours, poor health and safety
Russia: deep depression , uneven recovery based on extractive industry since; FDI mostly in consumer goods for domestic market

3. The challenge for trade unions
Conflict of interest between workers and employers – new role for trade unions
Need to represent workers’ interests in political processes
Need to represent workers in negotiation with employers
Need to defend workers against bad employers

4. Political role of ‘post-socialist’ trade unions
Political role in all three countries is to administer state functions and to preserve social peace
Chinese and Vietnamese Party requires unions to prevent strikes and social unrest
by mediating between worker and employer
by channelling disputes into bureaucratic and judicial channels
Growing level of strikes in private sector in China and Vietnam means pressure from Party
to organise migrant workers
to extend union organisation to POEs and FIEs
Russian trade unions politically independent, but under pressure from ruling party to maintain social peace. Lower level of strikes and protests, so need to mobilise members to achieve political influence

5. Legal Framework for unions
Extensive protective labour legislation
Provision for collective agreements
Bureaucratic-legal dispute resolution procedures
Legally enforced monopoly trade unions
Severely limited or no right to strike
Public order legislation/policing

6. Weak workplace trade unions
Workplace trade unions dominated by management, perform management functions
Union has almost no capacity to monitor and enforce legislation and agreements or to represent or mobilise workforce
Workers have little confidence in their unions
Exceptions in all three countries: depend on
personality of union president,
strong labour market situation of workers,
demographic structure of workforce,
performance of enterprise,
Type of ownership
Position in global supply chain

7. Bureaucratic regulation of labour relations
Unions prefer lobbying for laws and policies and legal-bureaucratic regulation
Sectoral/local/regional agreements – need for employers’ organisations; depend on political support from state authorities
Legal advice centres support the resolution of individual disputes, less effective for collective disputes

8. Bureaucratic regulation and worker activism
Limited effectiveness of bureaucratic-legal representation
Workers have limited capacity to organise or mobilise, little confidence in unions
Workers act through illegal strikes and protests – collective bargaining by riot
Symbiosis of bureaucratic representation and workers’ self-organisation
Need to integrate workers into trade union through active and effective workplace organisation

9. Harmonious workplace unions
Harmonious labour relations only possible where workplace trade union represents the union members and provides channels for representation/negotiation/bargaining
Effective workplace unions presuppose:
Collective labour dispute procedures, including the right to strike
Freedom of workers’ to organise themselves

10. Who has the most strikes?
China: no right to strike; limited channels for legal resolution of collective disputes
Vietnam: right to strike, only following slow and complicated bureaucratic procedure, no legal strikes
Russia: strikes legal, following exhaustion of procedure for resolution of collective labour disputes
Official number of strikes
2006
2007
Russia 8 7
Vietnam
387
540
China
????

11. Resolving collective labour disputes in Russia
Collective labour disputes arise regarding negotiation or terms of collective agreements
Demands put forward by union or majority vote of a meeting of workers
Conciliation – arbitration – strike
Strike must be supported by majority of the labour force
Registration of a collective labour dispute usually sufficient to persuade employer to settle

12. Freedom of association - Russia
1990 TU Law gave equal rights to any trade union – proliferation of small alternative trade unions, especially sectional unions, encouraged by US funding
2001 Labour Code gave majority trade union in each workplace monopoly representation rights, weakened alternative unions
Gives workers capacity to by-pass management-dominated union
Gives workplace union capacity to break with ineffective sectoral union
‘In general the existence of the alternative trade unions is even helpful. Competition does not allow us to stagnate’ Mikhail Shmakov FNPR President
Alternative unions significant as a force for change rather than as replacement of traditional unions

13. Effective workplace unions
Creating representative workplace unions
Election of trade union representatives
Widening participation in the union
Professionalisation of trade union officers
Training of workplace trade union officers
Trade union career path: salaries and promotion
Technical support for workplace trade unions:
Legal advice and representation
Support for collective bargaining
Inspections

14. Trade union elections
Necessary but not sufficient condition for change
Means of removing the most ineffective leaders
Management and existing leadership can easily control elections: difficulty of alternative candidates emerging
Widening participation in union provides space for candidates to prove themselves
Build union from the base: teams and shops
Need appropriate pay, conditions and status for trade union officers at each level
Reconcile trade union elections and Party leadership within framework of trade union structures.

15. Professionalising the union
Trade union identification with management in command economies was embedded in the pay, status and careers of trade union officers
In a market economy trade union officers are professional representatives of workers
Trade unions need new pay scales, professional training and career opportunities appropriate to their new role
Trade union officers should be paid by the union, not by management
Cost is a matter of trade union priorities

16. Supporting the workplace union
Russia Regional committees:
Provide information/documentation
Provide link to and lobby local administration/inspectorates/political bodies
Provide legal advice and representation
Negotiate regional agreements
Support collective bargaining
Provide training, consultation meetings
Organise coordinated campaigns

17. Supporting the workplace union
Vietnam
Short training courses for primary level cadres making use of ILO and support from foreign unions
Legal advice and education initiatives, including pressurising employers to allow workers and union officials to take part
Work with government departments and primary unions on inspections
Strike taskforces to assist in workplace wage negotiations
VGCL criticises government for delay in increasing minimum wage, wins increases

18. Organising the unorganised
Most difficult task for trade unions around the world especially in an environment of globalisation and informalisation.
Vietnam: Two stage process
Provisional committee organised from above
Election of standing committee after 6 months
Russia: Construction workers
Create a local union of construction workers independent of workplace, acts as employment agency

19. Conclusion - priority tasks of union
Strengthen workplace unions
Protect trade union officers
Professionalise union officers
Develop workplace organisation
Support workplace trade unions:
Training
Advice
Support in bargaining
Support workers in dispute
‘Workers of all countries unite’